Child's Toy
by The Fangirl Nation
Summary: Annabeth Chase is the name on everybody's mouths; both as the most popular girl in school, and as a famous actress. Meanwhile, Percy Jackson is a rebel, a bad boy, who is just trying to make his way through the drama that is high school. When two opposites collide, they find that maybe 'opposites' aren't so different, and the best things can spark in the strangest of places. AU
1. An Eight Grader With an Agent

Child's Toy

Chapter 1: I'm an Eighth Grader, With An Agent

Let's start! :D

Annabeth's PoV

My eyes fluttered open and I lazily gazed at the clock which read 7:30. And then I let them flutter closed again.

You know those moments when you have homework, and then you forget and the second you get into bed, you remember? Yeah I hate those moments, but that's exactly what I had at that second. I mean, if the clock said 7:30 then that could only mean. . .

I'm late for school.

I shot up in my bed and grabbed the alarm clock to get a better look at it. It really was seven thirty. I darted down two floors into the family common room where my mother, Susan Chase was resting, reading yesterday's newspaper. Wait, did I mention that my mother is the Susan Chase, award-winning novelist?

Susan Chase adopted me after finding me in some random bush on the side of the road. She always wore these crazy hats and today day she just happened to be wearing a little model of a tree for Miko, our pet chipmunk, to sit in. So she's weird, but I love her.

She also had these little red and yellow plastic hammers which are perfect for hitting me in the head. They scrunch up when they hit you, so they don't hurt, but with enough force behind them, they can leave this dull pain that is really annoying.

Anyways, I ran up to her and immediately started yelling.

"Mom, Mom, why didn't you wake me up!? Now I'm running late for school! You could have just woke me up, Just five minutes early. . ." I kept ranting while she didn't even look up from the out-dated newspaper.

When I finished flailing my arms and giving my throat a run for it's money I stormed away, leaving her alone in the living room and not wanting to hear a word of her author-like philosophy. I caught a glimpse of her just talking and talking and then she looked up to find no one there. It was actually kind of funny, but not funny enough for me to laugh because I was late and there was no time for that.

I ran back up to my room and hurriedly washed my face, brushed my hair, put it up into a messy, curly ponytail, and got dressed. I wore a grey shirt that had my name and a picture of me printed on it, and baby blue white-wash jeans. As soon as those pants were over my hips, I half sprinted half slid down the halls of my mansion past my maid, Thelma, who I greeted with such volume that she dropped the vacuum and covered her ears. I never stopped sliding until my mom showed up with her little red and yellow hammer plastic hammer and hit me right in the forehead.

Okay so more details about my mom. She has her little red hammer, her hats, and then her car. Like those little cars that little kids use that don't need pedals? Yeah, she has one. Except a mechanic souped it up and it could go really fast. Kind of like a real car, but for inside. I wasn't allowed to use it though because apparently it would make me 'lazy' and I would ruin my 'acting body'.

Anyways, she took me by the hand and stuffed me into the car with her and drove me all the way back into the kitchen.

"Mom, I'm already late please don't make me stay!" I screamed and tried to squirm myself out of the car, but no such luck.

When we made our stop in the kitchen I saw a huge plate full of food.

"Annabeth, it's your choice to get up late, but your mother is responsible and therefore it is my job to make you stay here. At least until you eat a proper breakfast," she said.

This was crazy. I could just skip breakfast for one day, one day! I'm an actress! My life will inevitably be filled with long sleepless, foodless, nights that are just chock-full of coffee and Red Bull! But no, she has to sit me down for freakin' Frosted Flakes!

"Alright, fine. I'll eat it then I'll go." I grumbled.

I basically shoved all of it down my throat. And then showed her my clean plate.

"Alright. You're excused." Mom said before I bolted down the hall to the garage, where I picked up a pair of white converse to start my walk to school. Until I saw Malcolm, my manager, chauffeur, and boyfriend, I might add. I started babbling to him about my lateness before he said, "Uh, I can drive?" I gasped.

"Oh. My. God Malcolm!" I jumped up and wrapped my arms around his neck. " You're a life saver! I love you so, so much!"

"Yeah. Okay." he replied. For a minute, I felt like was forgetting something, but then I figured out I wasn't, so jogged to catch up to Malcolm, who had already started walking to the car.

"Be careful Malcolm, I know how much of a demon you are behind the wheel." Mother called out to us as Malcolm clicked the button to open the garage door. The door lifted and the sunlight came pouring into the dark garage. Malcolm held open the car door and I climbed in, he walked around the front of the car and climbed in himself. He turned the key and heard the engine start. And we started moving very, very slowly.

What the heck? I asked him to drive because thought he would get me there faster, but he moving like, 1 mile per hour!

"Can you go faster? There is exactly 74 seconds until school starts and we've barely backed out of the driveway." I glanced out the window. "There are literally people walking outside faster than us!"

"Annabeth, I'm your manager, which means that it's my job to get you to and from school on a safe and reliable manner. And I take that job very seriously." I paused and stopped complaining.

"Oh Malcolm." I smiled before grabbing his neck and pulling his into a hug. "I really do love you."

Except Malcolm didn't want that. He crashed the car. Well, not really, but let's just say it was a really bumpy ride. And when we arrived, the car screeched to a stop and I hopped out.

"Thanks for getting me to school in one peice Malcolm."

"Yeah, well, you know it's my job to endure things like this," he panted. His suit was sliding down his shoulder on one arm and his tie was completely undone.

I had already started walking toward the building at Olympic speeds before he stopped me.

"Wait, Annabeth!" I whipped around. "Remember you have a live broadcast of Child's Toy after school. Once your last class is over I'll meet you here to drive-"

"You got it!" I cut him off with a kiss on the cheek. I turned around and, once again, fast-walked towards the building.

~Linebreak~

~In the hallway~

Everything had been fine up until a month or so ago when I changed up classes and became an eighth grader. However, my class in had a bit of a problem. I opened the door to find the usual chaos of our classroom.

"Please stop! At least just put your desks back on the ground!" Mrs. Hestia yelled uselessly at the rowdy students.

"It's math time! Well, actually we're thirty minutes late, come on kids just stop throwing things!" she whined again, but it was lost in the sea of airborne desks and loud laughs. After that she just started full-out crying.

I walked around the perimeter of the classroom to avoid the drama that was going on in the middle. This was how it always was. The boys were always picking on Mrs. Hestia and it looked like it was getting worse by the day. She cried like a baby, but everyone still deserves at least a little respect. Especially if it's your job to boss kids around.

"Oh look it's Annabeth," Thalia turned around from comforting the crying Mrs. Hestia.

"You're here," Juniper yelled over the noise.

She was standing in the middle of all of it, catching boys and throwing them on the ground in attempt to stop the drama. But the boys on the ground just got back up again and joined the nonsense. They both ran up to me and started speed-talking.

"It's happening again. In fact, the boys are being worse than before," Juniper said.

"This has got to stop, we're the only class that's like this and we're getting nowhere with our lessons," Katie, who had just joined the little huddle told me.

I kind of zoned out for a while and looked to the usual spot at the back of the classroom on the counter. And there he sat. He was listening to some music on his earbuds and looking off into space. Percy Jackson. That was him. The one. The scoundrel.

He was wearing his orange sweatshirt with the letters 'CHB' printed on it in these little tiki-hawaiian letters. He always wore that sweatshirt, which was annoying because I bet her never washed it.

But, in his defense, when the AC turns on in this school, you will seriously freeze. Like, don't get me wrong, I know how to handle the cold, which explained my flowy, slightly short, t-shirt I had on right now, but seriously, this school is like Antarctica in the summer.

We should get back on topic now.

Percy was the one who started picking on the teacher and the other boys follow everything he did like it was the law! That kid was pure trouble. Nothing else.

I walked through the middle aisle of the classroom with my hands up like I was some sort of crossing guard, pushing any boys that got in my way aside. I checked the side of the desk Percy had planted his foot on. It was just as I thought. The desk I personally autographed. My desk.

"Good morning Percy. It smells to me like your foot landed in something your mouth left behind so I guess that explains the ugly look on your face." He just rolled his eyes and looked at me like I was dog poop on the bottom of his shoes or something, not even giving me a thought.

"Ignoring me, are you?" I looked at him in the eye, which was really hard judging that his eyes were closed. I got no reply, and I snapped.

"Get your lousy foot off my desk! You cause enough trouble in this classroom and I want it to stop! Am I even getting through to you? I want you get all these idiot boys who follow you like monkey to stop and-"

I was cut off because I started tumbling away with the desk in my grasp. I had pulling on the desk with all my body weight and the only thing keeping me attached to the floor was Percy's foot. And when he took off the said foot, I fell.

I shot death glares into his ugly face, well his face wasn't really ugly it was actually quite attractive, he had these thick, dark eyebrows and this sun kissed skin, but that's besides the point. I picked myself back up and stole Percy's MP3 player and threw it into the crowd of boys. They all stopped to catch it, and once they did, I literally round-house kicked every one of them. And if not for the fact the Mrs. Hestia was still crying, I would have been expelled.

I weaved my desk around all the lifeless bodies, and planted it where it would have been if not for the fact that Percy had put his old worn out converse on them. I raised my hand and coughed a little, which got Mrs. Hestia's attention. Though I'm not sure which it was, the coughing, or the silence around me. Either way she called on me in between sobs.

"Ahem." I cleared my throat authoritatively. "Mrs. Hestia I had a question about the last lesson because I had to leave early for work yesterday."

I rummaged through my blue backpack. I was actually not the best at math, I mean, I like it and all, but I always have to miss class at about math time, not that it mattered, I mean math time technically was let's-play-catch-with-desks-like-monkeys-time in this class. But before Percy started his reign of terror, and it was actually learning time at school, we used to do math at 1:30 and that's when I had my weekly Child's Toy meeting to discuss what's going to happen next in the show.

The meetings usually turned into the cast and I stealing food from various commercials airing in the studio and having a junk food fest. The show was pretty much a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. And it didn't help that Mrs. Hestia passes out homework without teaching at the end of the day. The girls always end us as the only ones who do it anyway.

"O-Okay, what are they, Annabeth?" Mrs. Hestia blotted off her tears with a hankie as she spoke.

"Well, in this equation is saying that p - 1 = 5p + 3p - 8, right? What I didn't understand was why-"

I didn't get to finish because I was so rudely interrupted by the sound of loud laughter coming from behind me.

"Hey teach, my stomach hurts!" Ethan laughed.

"Ignore them," I whispered loudly, and inched closer to Mrs. Hestia, showing her the math book, and continued.

"Does p have to be on one side? Couldn't be on both?" I continued but Mrs. Hestia diverted her attention from me to the boys, who were in fact, still laughing. I couldn't lie, I got really irritated by that. I mean, if they were just going to bully her, why pay attention? It's kind of like cyber-bullying. I get hate on the internet all the time. All you have to do is shut the computer down and *poof!* just like that, it's gone.

"Stop that, you know they're just trying to freak you out again! Why can't you just ignore them? They're stupid!" I said sternly.

"Oh, sorry."

"Anyways, back to the problem! I think you know what I'm talking about," I said.

"Oh, well I got it. What you're asking has a simple answer." She sniffled.

"Oh great! Well show me!" I said enthusiastically.

She was actually teaching and writing stuff on the board which I thought was great, and I was momentarily really, really happy for her until we heard all the boys in the classroom chorusing,

"Three, two, one, fire!" Balloons filled with chalk dust exploded all over the board, covering Mrs. Hestia while she just stood there, dumbfounded.

All the girls coughed and waved books, while I turned around and yelled, "Dumb boys!" I was ready to totally cut them all down when I heard sobbing from the front of the classroom. Of course, it was Mrs. Hestia. Her chocolatey brown hair now looking more blonde with chalk dust.

" , stop crying, dont show them you care!"

"I c-can't help i-it I-I can't. . . can't. . ."

"They're just going to push you harder, you know."

"Achoo!" She sneezed.

Some of my girls went to comfort her while Percy's boys laughed and chorused, "Laughter is the best medicine!"

Then walked in and started scolding them. "Will you kids keep it down? We can hear you all the way at the end of the hall!"

"Mrs. Hestia and Mr. Bacchus sitting in a tree! K- I- S- S- I- N- G!" They sang the rest of the song while Mr. Bacchus walked over to Mrs. Hestia and put his hands on her hips. It would have been a really cute and romantic moment, if it weren't for the fact that they were teachers.

"Come on hun, you gotta try to keep it together for me, okay?" he whispered and stroked her hair.

"B-But they're so mean!" she sniffled back, her head in her hands. He walked up in front of her and spread his arms out like a shield.

"How long do you little punks think you can get away with this kind of behavior?"

"That's it, Mr. Bacchus! You tell them what's what!" While I cheered, the rest of my girlfriends jeered.

"You're supposed to be in the eighth grade but here you are acting like twelve year olds! I mean-"

He stopped when Percy pulled out something from his jacket pocket.

"What's wrong Mr. Bacchus? What happened to all your enthusiasm?" I questioned, looking from him to Mrs. Hestia to Percy and back.

"I don't get it. This is really odd." I looked at the teacher's again.

"Um, I'm kind of at a loss here. . ." I looked at Percy. What was that sly, confident smile all about?

He just stared at them until they quieted down and slipped it back into his inside jacket pocket.

Wait, what if he had something against the teachers?

After that little thought crossed my mind and that little fiasco ended, the boys picked their desk-catch game back up and continued to be be loud and stupid. Mrs. Hestia ran out of the room crying, and I was left there in a mess of. . . well, mess. Percy just munched on something blue in the back row. That was funny, I didn't think there was blue food.

And that was when I terribly evil, yet terribly beautiful idea bloomed.

~Linebreak~

~On the set of Child's Toy~

Sometimes, I use my hairdresser, Mitchell to vent about my school. Is that bad?

"Oh. My. God! Three days ago, the day before yesterday, yesterday, today, and tomorrow and fifty years from now, I'm still gonna be the dumbest girl on the planet! And it's all because of this kid in my class and I'm gonna make him regret that he messed with the likes of me. . ."

I ranted on for hours on.

Anyways, this was the Half Blood Studios makeup room. Today, the popular TV show called Child's Toy, which I am lucky enough to be a part of, is airing a live broadcast. So all these kids are pretty nervous.

Okay, back to the main topic.

"He is evil I say! Percy is simply pure evil!" I yelled some more while, Mitchell kept brushing my hair. I glanced at my hair in the mirror to find two braids sticking out from each side of my head.

"Um. . . Mitchell? Is this how my hair's gonna look when I go on set today?"

"It is if you don't sit still for me, sweetheart."

Just then there was a couple of camera flashes and I looked up, expecting some crazy paparazzi or something, to see Malcolm taking a picture of me with my wolverine impersonation hair.

"Ugh, Malcolm why are you taking pictures of me now?"

"Some behind the scenes, for your webpage." Malcolm replied, holding up the two pictures he took.

"That manager of yours something is something else. He's got a reputation around town for being nicer than almost anyone in the biz," Mitchell continued combing my curly mess of blonde hair.

"Sounds like a crush," I pointed at him behind me and he flushed. So it was a crush, I was assuming? Or is he just embarrassed that I accused him of being gay? I've always been a little awkward with the whole 'taking a hint' thing.

"Oh no, just an observation, it's what the rumor mill says."

"Well you can tell that rumor mill of yours that Malcolm is my boyfriend and a very taken man."

"Boyfriend?! He's much too old for you, sweetheart."

"But he's a gentleman, and he sticks around as long as I can pay him. Right, my darling?" I glanced at at Malcolm out of the corner of my eye, because apparently pigtails take two hours to make, he was sitting on a chair at the far left corner of the room and sifting through the pictures he took.

"Whatever you say, my dear Annabeth." He didn't even look up.

~Linebreak~

~In the halls of the studio~

I stomped through the beige colored halls with Malcolm close on my tail.

"That big dummy needs someone to show him what a knuckle sandwhich tastes like, and I'm gonna be the one to do it!" I fumed.

"Oh you told me, are you referring to that rowdy kid in your class? Percy, was it?" Malcolm asked.

"Rowdy sounds like he's a cowboy. And cowboys are nice, but he's not!"

"Well let's just try to keep that temper of yours under control. He's a lot bigger than you." That wasn't necessarily true. I mean, Percy didn't tower over me, he was actually like, the same height as me.

"Don't worry about me! Using ancient sword fighting techniques that I learned in my stage combat class, I'll cut him apart, cut him apart like meat! Like this-"

I jabbed out my rolled up script and instead of hitting the air, I hit a guy. Whoops. Oh look. It was that guy from that band. Niall was it? I think we met was that award ceremony a while back.

"Nice to see you again, Annabeth," he choked out.

"Hey! Congratulations on the new album, Four! It's become a big hit, huh? I know it's really hard with Zayn and everything."

"Thanks, yeah it's going really well. Hey aren't you doing your live show thing, Child's Toy?" he wheezed.

"I sure am."

"Break a leg. I always watch, it's one of my favorites."

"And thank you for watching."

I only then realized that my script was still jabbed into his stomach. That must have been why he was wheezing. I finished up the cut with a hard swipe and sent him tumbling to the floor in a coughing.

"I couldn't resist," I said.

"Hey, I understand, see ya." he walked away.

~Linebreak~

~On the set of Child's Toy~

"Smell the scent of a great school year. So kids, how 'bout you? Tell me, is your term going swimmingly?" Zach, the host of Child's Toy said.

"Are you stupid?" I muttered. I know I seem a bit bitter, but you can't blame me. I was have a crappy day, and I did not need and overly-charismatic TV show host in my life and this moment.

"Have you made any new best friends?" He completely ignored me.

"What about enemies?" I grumbled.

"But what about your teachers? Do any of you have fabulous teachers who have opened your young eyes? Let's hear it." Again, completely ignored.

"Not in this world."

"How great! I new world to explore for all you kids." continued wistfully, as if thinking that the student life was amazing. Which he was TOTALLY WRONG about, obviously.

"Oh, please." I mumbled again.

"What a life it would be to be back in my boots as a kid again and I-" He kept at it. Was this guy deaf?

"Are you an idiot?" I grumbled.

This time the guy finally noticed me. I replied like 3497 times. Well, not really, but it was definitely some number close to that!

"What's wrong there, Annabeth? You seem a bit wound up today." He walked up to me and put his elbows on my desk and his chin in his hands.

"Well, duh." I made why voice sound stupid, just like he seemed to be acting right about now.

"But it's freetime!" he argued, I didn't care.

"Like I care." I voiced my thoughts.

"So you're just not having any fun, kiddo?" he was truly concerned, which made me feel a little pang of guilt because I liked Zach and I was being rude. Then I stopped caring.

"No. It's a nightmare." I couldn't lie.

"What? Why?" he asked. This guy sure is curious.

"The life of a kid these days isn't the blissful dream you keep thinking about, Zach. When in fact, it just plain stinks." I told him the truth, because again, I couldn't lie.

"Wow."

"It's an untamed jungle where if you're not the hunter then you're the prey!"

"Jungle, huh?"

"That right, it's a vicious place where someone with curly Q's in their hair and buck teeth like you couldn't survive a minute!"

"Ouch."

"Today, my teacher cried so much that she almost flooded the whole entire floor! During class the kids kicked balls around, threw food, set off fireworks, and they all sounded like animals! Are you listening to me!? That is not a school! That is not the way to teach kids." I took a deep breath.

"That place is more like a zoo and all the dumb boys are nothing but monkeys, swinging all around their stupid monkey mountain! And every single solitary individual monkey is to blame. But it's mostly his fault! He started all of it! It was him, him, him!" I was panting like a dog after I finished my little spiel.

"Woah! Calm down there Annabeth. Who is 'He'?"

"Well I'll tell you!"

"O-Oh, well then go ahead."

I walked over to where the camera had been filming the look on another one of the people's faces. I took hold of it and swivelled it so it was only my face in the shot.

"I'm talking about you Percy! Perseus Jackson, are you listening you dumb stinking monkey?! Percy Jackson, 8th grade, class 3H, Half Blood Junior High! Every morning I wake up hoping it'll be a normal day for once, but then you're there!" I took a deep breath. All that talking really wears you out.

"And if you weren't there then the world wouldn't be a disgrace! It's all your fault, you're the one to blame! You!" Then two burly men took hold of my arms and dragged me off the set.

"Wait. What are you doing!? Get your hands off me! Let go of me!" Security dragged me away, and I didn't even get to finish the speech I so carefully planned out.

Little did I know that the whole time I stared into that little camera, Percy was staring right back.

~Linebreak

~Home, day of broadcast~

"That felt great! Like I've been trekking through the desert for days without water and then- BANG! I find an oasis." I said as I began dancing on the couch.

"Quite an outburst, we haven't seen one of those in a while, Annabeth, but could you have worn a dress while doing it, dear?" Mama asked quite uselessly.

"Still, I hope that 'Percy' kid doesn't try to get revenge on you when he sees you at school tomorrow. You might want to keep your guard up." Malcolm worried.

"Oh, no need to worry about that. I'm not afraid of the spoiled brat! And after all, he can't do anything for himself! He needs his little monkey goons to do all his dirty work. And I can take them easy."

"But Annabeth, what if they all came at you in a group? Do you think you can take on all the boys at the same time?" Mama asked, all the while she sipped on her cup of tea.

"Mama. . ." I warned her not to ruin the moment

"'Mama' is only stating possibilities. Just keep in mind that because of your words, the ill repute of this young boy, Percy, has spread beyond your school, straight into the eyes and minds of millions of people watching TV today. Now if this boy really is as evil as you say, and you exposed him to millions, shouldn't you expect a retaliation?"

That's it. I knew she would say something philosopher-like. Great, now there's awkward silence. But still, she made a pretty good point. I mean, what if. . .

"Well, if it comes down to that, I'll be there for her. I mean, I'm her bodyguard right?" Malcolm spoke into the silence.

"Oh, Malcolm," I cooed, looking all big-eyed and lovesick at him. Before I jumped and gave him a hug.

"Oh, I love you Malcolm! You're going to smash their bones into glitter and then pack them and ship them coach class back to their families with only the regret that you'll have to spend money on stamps!"

"Well, I'm tired. And I think it's also time you two get some sleep." Mother stood up and walked off while Malcolm walked me to my room.

"Time for bed!" I yawned before hurrying off to my room ahead of him. Before I had felt like I didn't want to sleep, but suddenly, the idea of sleep sounded really good.

~Linebreak~

~In Annabeth's room~

I stood up on the bed and yelled into my recorder: "Oh Annie's sweet mood goes up and down!"

The recorder replied in an octave higher: "Oh Annie's sweet mood goes up and down! Oh Annie's sweet mood goes up and down!"

I waited for it to end and then started my awesome rap song thing.

"I slept in this morning, I broke a major rule, though!

I made it to school which has become so brutal!

All because of Percy the monster, my nemesis,

I'll put him in a room and wait till spring to see how he did!

Makes the teacher cry, no work gets done,

The class is a monkey house and he's the lead one!"

Malcolm kept snapping to the beat next to me in bed. While I pulled out my keyboard and started playing out a weird retro song.

"He makes me feel crazy, like I'm Slenderman. . ." I started up my upbeat song again and jumped onto the bed.

"Now I feel better because I got it all out!" I tapped my recorder and it replied, in my voice which sounded a bit echo-y. "Now I feel better because I got it all out!"

"Yeah I feel so much better because I let it all out!"

"Yeah I feel so much better because I let it all out!"

"And that's your bedtime love song, Malcolm!" I whirled around to see him looking right at me, not really affected by me singing him such an awesome spiel about that no good rotten little brat. I mean, I'm a terrible singer and lyricist, but I like to do it, so I do it anyway.

"For a love song it was kind of bitter," he said to the beat.

I flopped down and put my head on his chest. "Yeah, okay goodnight." He tucked the blanket up to my chin and since I'm such a light sleeper, I felt him slip out from under me and shut the door when he thought I was asleep.

~Linebreak~

~Annabeth's room, morning~

I dreamed of me running onto a hill and planting a flag that said 7:30 and yelling, "Hey! It's time for school!" For a second I couldn't breathe. I mean if it's seven thirty then. . .

I'm late for school. Again.

"Late again!?" I screamed, clutching my alarm clock and yelling at it for not being loud enough.

I washed my face, brushed my hair and put it up into another messy ponytail. So much for trying to make it look good today. I put on my clothes. Today I wore short, plaid, baby blue dress and I put a big baby blue bow right on the tie of my ponytail. The dress looked kind of like a really short shirt and a skirt. The top being white with a tinge of blue and the bottom being baby blue with plaid grey stripes. I ran down stairs to find my mom already at the table with breakfast. . .

"Oh my, Annabeth, you're two minutes faster today." she said as I shoved everything down my throat and showed her the spotless plate. I gave a quick nod and Lucky-Charm-colored grin and then-

"Madam, your editor is here now and waiting." Thelma peeked her head into the doorway and spoke to mom.

"Oh thank you Thelma, and oh, good Annabeth. That's a nice clean plate."

"Good morning, ladies! Susan, I'm here to collect your manuscript Today's your deadline and I-" mom's editor, Will, walked in and greeted us.

We both jumped up and started sprinting out the door. Oh, I forgot to tell you! Mother is never ready by the deadline. We left him in the dust yelling, "Wait, where are you going? Your manuscript!"

~Timeskip~

Malcolm stepped on the accelerator we eased out of the garage. I ushered him to hurry the whole time we drove.

"Thanks for the ride! It was safer than yesterday!" I hopped out and fast-walked just like yesterday.

"Annabeth, wait."

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering if it would be safer for you if I walked you to class."

"Oh, how cute! Are you worried about me?"

"Yeah. It's sort of my job." He shrugged.

"Don't worry. If anything should happen to me. . . I'll use my ancient sword fighting techniques that I learned in stage combat class and I'll destroy my enemies!"

"Right. What do you say we try these?" Malcolm pulled out two weird blue little pager-looking things with surprisingly cute keychains attached to them.

"Okay, but what is it?"

"It's Barucha, the shaking walkie-talkie."

"Bara-ru-cheetah what?"

"You just have to hit this button here," He pointed to a trident shaped button on his, and I touched my owl shaped one. "And the device will vibrate, sending me a sign."

"So it's basically my vibrating hotline directly to you."

"Yep. Now lets give this thing a shot."

We both pressed the button simultaneously and I heard a faint humming sound before we both started violently shaking.

"I-I t-t-think they work p-p-p-p-p-pretty well."

"W-When th-th-th-this happens y-y-you can count on me to b-b-b-be right there by y-your side."

"Thanks M-Malcolm. You're the s-s-sweetest for thinking of i-i-i-it." I bit my tongue and winced. Maybe talking while shaking wasn't the best idea.

We stopped shaking and he drove away. I sped up the steps. Before a line of boys appeared before me.

"You should all fear me! I have kung fu moves!" I started posing all kung-fu like before I realized that they weren't boys at all. They were girls. To be specific, my girls.

"What are you doing?" Juniper asked.

"Uh. Nothing!" I straightened myself up.

"You know you really shouldn't be here today." Piper said.

"What? Why?" I asked. I was truly confused. And I'm a pretty smart girl, so that's saying something.

"The boys saw you on TV, and the said they were gonna pound your face in." Hazel spoke up.

"Ha! Those simple minded loser boys. You guys relax. I've got those popcorn heads right inside my back pocket. If they were gonna try anything at all today, I've got a plan. Malcolm gave me this wonderful shaky thingy. If I could just find it." I fished through my new, grey backpack. "Where did it go? Come on, come on, come oooo-" Then I realized.

I had handed it back to Malcolm after trying them out.

"Great. I gave the thing back to Malcolm." I remembered how he just drove back without a care in the world. "He didn't even notice he took it!" I threw my backpack over my left shoulder again and sighed, which made my bangs fly up from my head.

"Behind you." Thalia said.

I turned around to find the real crowd of boys all shooting deadly glares at us. Metaphorically of course. I mean if they were real deadly lasers I would dodge every single one of them just the way I learned in stage combat class.

"Just the rotten eggs we were looking for." Frank said. Frank was the biggest boy. He had short, black hair and squinty eyes. He always wore this baseball cap backwards, which annoyed me because one he's breaking the rules, on top of breaking all the other rules he does in class. And two, no one wears a cap backwards anymore. Accept Superwoman. She can pull it off.

"Yeah. We all heard everything you said yesterday," Ethan said. Ethan was Percy's lead monkey. Most would say Grover was, but he wasn't really a monkey. He never really did anything bad in general, actually. He would just kind of hang around Percy and fiddle with his glasses.

Ethan also had black hair similar to Frank's, but was long and overgrown. He always wore an eyepatch which I thought looked ridiculous but all the boys thought it looked cool, so he kept it on.

"Little Miss TV thinks she can say anything she wants," Jason spoke. Jason had blonde hair and blue eyes and he was actually okay. Every once in a while we would talk, but most of the time he was just as monkey-like as the rest.

"Oh yeah? Well this Little Miss TV said exactly what she wanted and you couldn't do anything about it," I huffed.

"That's enough." Ethan spat. I turned to my girls.

"Get out of here." I said firmly.

"We can't leave you." Piper said.

"You girls don't want to get caught up in the middle of this. Now go!" I ordered. They all jogged away from the scene.

"We're gonna go get Mr. Bacchus," Juniper said, before jogging ahead of the rest. I whipped back around to see Jason, Leo, Frank, Ethan, and Nico, who didn't even notice was there, all turned to me, fists drawn.

"You know, I'd love to take a picture of this whole scene here. You five brave boys facing up against some weak little girl." I said, a smug smile written all over my face.

"Shut your mouth, you little-" Ethan growled.

"You boys remind of that story where the donkey buried the lion without his skin." I cut him off. Honestly, at this point, I didn't even know what I was saying anymore. I just had to two goals. To make them mad, and to stall.

"What does that even mean?" Jason asked no one in particular.

"I don't know, but it makes me all mad inside." Leo half-whined.

They all ran at me, and I yelled something like, "You wouldn't you dare touch mmph!" Before they all pummeled my face in, leaving my face deformed.

"Ahh! I'm gross! I can't go on the air like this!"

*ANNABETH'S DAYDREAM:

Is Annabeth absent today?" Zach said, looking at my empty seat.

"I heard she got the crap beaten out of her," Shane, my co-star of Child's Toy said.

Suddenly I walked in with a mummy costume and bandages over my blob-shaped face, and don't forget sunglasses for style. Everyone on the set screamed, and my acting career ended.

But then again, a bold new image could be just what brings new life into the show. The ratings would spike like a rocket and and the TV show and Half Blood Studios would soar to infinity! And amidst all the excitement, I escape to Hawaii with Malcolm where we would gaze at every romantic sunset.

"Annabeth," Malcolm would say, while leaning into my face for the kiss just like I've always wanted him to. "My darling, I adore you."

"Oh Mal-" I would say before being ambushed by a ton of flashing lights. No matter our efforts, we'd never escape the invasive paparazzi! The headlines would be everywhere! 'Hideous Creature Discovered With Handsome Agent in Hawaii'! The name Annabeth Chase would be forever recognized throughout the world as the beautiful, bumpy faced, entertainer! Ahaha!

*END OF DAYDREAM*

"Haha! I'm pounded and proud!" Wait, did I just say all that out loud? Even the part about Malcolm. . . Oh yeah, this is embarrassing. I felt my face, which was perfectly Annabeth-shaped and not covered in tissue paper, or whatever mummies use to be wrapped up.

"Dont worry we'll show you what it means to be pounded!" Both Ethan and Jason came at me, with their fists raised and I got into position one combat mode. Then we were stopped, you already know by who. The monkey boss himself

"What's going on?" Percy said quietly. Percy's voice was low, smooth, and slow. It was always kind of quiet, but it had this intimidating factor to it.

He had shown up on the steps of the school early, like always. with Grover, his best man, at his side. He had longish raven black, messy, sea swept hair, murky sea green eyes that were always clouded with millions of unreadable emotions, and tan, Greek skin. He'd be quite attractive, actually, if it wasn't for his terrible personality. But I gotta say, his looks have always seemed to take my breath away. But you get past it once you know him, you know?

"Percy. . ." Ethan faltered.

"You know, she bad mouthed you all over television yesterday," Leo piped up, watching as Percy strode past them, his hands shoved into his pockets.

"Just leave the girl alone guys, okay?" he said quietly, as he retreated towards the building. How could he even do that? I'm Annabeth Chase, like the biggest star of today I just let some things slip out about him and the whole public probably hates him now and- Oh. I really am a terrible person aren't I?

"Yeah, but uh…" Ethan trailed off. He gaped at Percy in this sort of way that just screamed 'What-the-heck-are-you-doing-missing-out-on-this-chance' I bet he really hoped that he could pummel my face in. Like, for real this time.

"Just leave her alone," he didn't look back as he disappeared from sight into the building. Grover looked back at us and just shook his head firmly, some kind of emotion burning in his eyes before speeding up a little to catch up with Percy. Grover was actually a nice person, but he never leaves Percy's side. It makes me wonder why good people are so badly wasted.

The boys and I just stood there, staring after them, kind of dazed that Percy just denied watching me going on an all expenses paid trip to No Career Town. Ethan was the first to snap out of it. Even then, he just kicked up some dirt from the ground and cursed under his breath.

"Whatever." The eye patched boy said before the boys dispersed. What was Percy even thinking?

"Hey Perce," Jason spoke when they finally caught up with Percy, who apparently had stopped to let them catch up. "what do you got in the bag there?" he asked.

Of course not schoolwork, because I mean, how crazy would that be? (Note the sarcasm)

"It's a surprise," he replied with no emotion.

~Linebreak~

I was walking down the hallway, my mood dampened a little, but not enough to put me in bad tenor. I lightly hummed some random tune and swung my backpack around in one hand when suddenly Mr. Bacchus ran down the hallway with my girls trailing behind yelling something like, "Annabeth I'll save you!" I didn't really think much of it until they stopped right in front of me.

"You look fine to me," Mr. Bacchus said, grabbing my face and checking it all around for bruises or burns or whatever.

"We thought you were dead!" Piper sighed.

"They just let you walk away without a scratch?" Juniper walked around me, as if looking for some secret scratch I was hiding or something.

"Annabeth, did you get hurt?" Mr. Bacchus stopped checking me and just looked into my eyes.

"Nah. I'm just running late to class like always," I said.

I brushed past him and continued my humming while they followed. I opened the door, hoping and praying to the gods that maybe the boys had found the error of their ways are were currently sitting politely and with good posture in the classroom learning arithmetic and raising their hands everyone had their notebooks out and they were taking notes and all the desks were as if they were glued to the floor.

And I wish that Percy was actually sitting in his desk for once instead of the back counter and he burned whatever he had against the teacher and the girls and boys were communicating and having small amounts of fun but still working hard to be educated. But then I opened the door.

I saw an array of colors flying through the air. That could only mean one thing. . .

Water guns.

They had Water guns.

Except they weren't filled with water.

Paint.

They were filled with paint.

Every single boy except for Grover had a black water pistol. Whizzing paint into the air. Each line of the thick liquid finding it's way to Mrs. Hestia.

"Children stop it! No! Please don't!" The teacher yelled between each squirt. Then one landed in her mouth and she stopped talking, which was followed by the sound of claps on and the backs and multiple people yelling 'Bullseye!'

"How that for target practice?" Ethan chuckled, causing both Leo and Jason to burst into a fit of laughter.

"What are those?" Mrs. Hestia asked, apparently, she swallowed the paint, which was actually really bad come to think of it. I wonder if she'll be okay.

"They're water pistols." Nico said.

"Yeah, we got them from Percy," Leo piped up. "He a genius. He the one who thought of the idea of filling these things up with ink instead of water."

Okay, so it was ink, not paint. That's even worse. Ink doesn't even wash out! Well, neither does paint but, whatever. They shouldn't be spraying anything!

Percy just stood there in his usual spot at the back of the room, the only blue pistol in his hand. He didn't do anything when the boys approached Mrs. Hestia, forming a half circle around her, pinning her against the wall.

"Please kids, no more. I've had enough," she pleaded, but they didn't let up.

I sighed. "This is never going to-"

"No, stop!" Mr. Bacchus jumped up in front of Mrs. Hestia, which earned him 11 good squirts all over his body. The boys laughed, he didn't.

"This game is over, boys! Gimme those water guns and sit down, or you'll all be sorry!" he yelled over the noise, which gave me a nice trip to Headache City.

"Is that so?"

Everyone quieted down at the voice that was never often heard in the classroom. All boys, and the girls, and the teachers, and well, me, turned around to see Percy, his earbuds finally out of his stupid head and strewn across his shoulders.

The whole scene was actually quite attractive, but saying that would technically be cheating on Malcolm, so I didn't. He stood up, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips curved down into this really cute frown that made him look like a rebellious little. . . monkey! A rebellious little monkey. Heh. I was totally going to say monkey.

"Are you gonna. . . do something?" he asked, his eyes clouded with basically every bad emotion. Anger, betrayal, intimidation. Insanity. He held up two polaroids, both turned around so that all you could see was the white backside.

"Because, I don't mind going public with these, if that's fine with you." His voice, was quiet and low and slow, and smooth, yet gravelly, it was like drugs on my ears. I loved the sound of it. I snuck a glance that teachers, and saw that their looks of anger and authority disappeared and had been replaced with looks of utter horror.

"I'll just expose you adults for what you really are. Is that what you really want to do?" He aimed his gun to take another shot at the teachers but just before he could pull the trigger.

Except he didn't get to. Suddenly, a bright blue splotch appeared on his eye and he dropped the gun. Everyone looked towards the direction the shot came from, but I knew exactly who it was.

It was me. I picked up an extra gun and shot him, and thankfully I hit my target. Everyone looked at him, then at me, then back at him, and then back at me, who just squirted the school's scariest bully in the face. He glared at me and I looked right back at him with the same scary look he only reserved for me and wiped some of the ink of his face with his shirt sleeve.

"Now then," I said. "Let's start with you shutting up."

Ok so this chapter clocked in at:

Pages: 21

Words: 8366

Ok, so my objective for this story is to bring anime to the book world, so yes, this is Kodocha for those who noticed. But relax, I don't own it and I'm gonna change the ending because it sucked and inserted some different parts. So yeah.

Ok. You guys are probably really confused so I'll explain.

Malcolm is Annabeth's chauffeur, manager, and boyfriend. He always wears sunglasses and never takes them off. You'll find out more about his past and who he really is later.

Annabeth is an outgoing child TV star. He thinks Malcolm is her boyfriend because she's still kinda childish and doesn't seem to notice that one, Malcolm is way too old. He's about 24. And two, she's way too young. She's thirteen.

Percy is a rebellious hellion. He has rough past. He has some family I'll tell you about later and right now everything is kinda a mystery for him. Percy does not have a secret crush on Annabeth. They are truly enemies right now.

Annabeth is really OOC right now but don't worry, she'll chill a little later on. And it's an AU anyways, she can be as different as I need her to be.

Okay guys, please review even if it's to criticize me. But please don't hate, it can take 'Oh fix your sentence structure' but I can't take 'You freaking suck!' Um, I'll answer questions next chapter in the beginning AN, and people follow and favorite! Thanks!

I don't own Percy Jackson or Kodocha.

Follow your dreams.

BaiBai!

-CeCe


	2. Level 100: Boss

Title: Child's Toy

So bummer, we didn't reach the review goal. Well, there's always next time right? Yup.

Mkay so replies to those who did review:

Nico Di Awesome asked:

Doesn't her mom say anything because she is 13 and Is dating a 24 year old?

Answer: Good question. So you all know that Annabeth's mom is all about philosophy, so no, she wouldn't tell Annabeth that it's completely irrational that she date Malcolm. She thinks that Annabeth should grow, and that she should realize that herself. And she already knows that Malcolm isn't serious about it, he's just playing along. So again, she just wants to see her daughter grow as a person. And it's not like they've kissed or anything. Unless you count Annabeth kissing him on the cheek a couple of times. Thanks for being my first review! Love you to pieces!

Well that's all the questions.

Brought to you by CeCe from ProjectPercabeth and The Fangirl Nation! (me)

Let's begin!

Annabeth's PoV

Previously on Child's Toy:

"I'll just expose you adults for what you really are. Is that what you really want to do?" -Percy

I stole a gun from a boy and shot him. -Annabeth

"Let's start with you shutting up."- Annabeth

Chapter 2: Level 100: Boss

"It's time to stop this, Percy," A silent battle went on between us as stormy grey met swamp green. He kept wiping his face until there was a faded blue circle around his eye like someone punched him.

"Y-Yeah," A small voice called out from somewhere from the room. We turned around to find Juniper, with her fists clenched at her sides. "We've had enough Percy, okay?"

"This class is chaos!" Hazel piped up.

"You think you're so cool because you can get away with anything, don't you?" Katie asked.

"Yeah! You think you're so cool, but you're just an idiot!" Thalia, who was clearly having fun, laughed.

"You're worse than an idiot, you're a monster!" Piper cried.

Percy quirked an eyebrow at that one and Grover flushed. "Percy," he said, as if trying to keep Percy under control.

"Percy is a monster! Percy is a monster!" the girl chorused over and over again. Percy looked like he was just about ready to burst.

"Shut up! You whiners!" Ethan got up in their faces.

Juniper just up in his face and yelled, "Why don't you shut up?" he looked at her and flushed, like he wasn't used to anyone but me and occasionally standing up to him.

"Why do you guys always take orders from him and act like idiots?" she yelled again, and he flushed darker. It was great. Juniper was finally showing her abrasive side. It didn't take long before the classroom turned into a huge war between the boys and the girls. (A/N: See what I hinted at there? A war between the Greek and Romans? Lol I'm awesome.) Percy turned on his heel to leave while the getting was good but I stopped him by him by the collar.

"Hold it!" I said firmly; I wasn't quite done. He turned around.'

"Are you leaving?" I asked, and I waited for his answer for what seemed like days.

"Guys," he said. I heard a rumbling noise and turned around to see where it was coming from. Instead, the boys trampled me.

Percy continued his walk out of the classroom and all I could do was glare at him before I was completely engulfed in the sea of boys. It was terrible. It smelt really bad in there and I began to wonder how Percy smelled . . .

"You guys are such little stooges! He bosses you around like a bunch of dogs! Can you bark for me?" I yelled, doing my best to keep down the boys that were hugging me at all angles. But it not very easy to kick someone when like, seven people are latched onto your legs.

"Shut up! Percy has to wash his face because of you," Ethan commented. His face was still red from the whole Juniper incident.

I broke free of the boys with a couple of punches and a well-placed pencil. Told Malcolm I would destroy my enemies.

"Hold it right there!" I ran out into the hall to find Percy heading outside.

"You're the big ruler in this monkey house, so what are you doing running away? You know, one of these days someone's gonna mash you up like potatoes right in front of everyone and eat you for dinner! What do you think of that?"

He turned around and for a second, I was terrified of the feral expression on his face. Then took a deep breath and manned up. But then again, I'm not a man, so I guess I womaned up?

He just stared at me with that expression for a while and I thought about just exactly why I went and opened my big mouth again. Until he turned around and kept on walking towards the front door of the school and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd be holding for so long.

He slid the door shut and he was gone. I just kind stood there all limp before Thalia came up from behind me and clapped me on the back.

"You did it!" she practically screamed and squeezed my shoulders.

The rest of the girls came up to me and gave me pats on the back and congrats and just had a three minute party around me.

"If it was that easy I would have done it earlier . . ." I said.

"We knew you could do it! We knew you had it in you to win!" Piper congratulated me.

"I just hope they don't try to get some sort of payback," Juniper pondered.

"Pshh, just go ahead and let them try," I said coolly, and the girls grouped around me and started cheering like little fangirls. "Sure they'll come after me, but it's too late now!" I kept laughing but I was thinking elsewhere on the inside.

There is no way I'll even let Percy have the chance to defeat me . . .

~Linebreak~

~Percy PoV~

I washed my face in the bathroom. The stupid girl got ink all over it. The water came out blue and for a second I smiled on the inside, thinking about my mother and her blueness.

Then I looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were darker than ever and my bangs were wet and plastered to my face. The whites of my eyes had a red tinge to them and my lips were pale. In short, I looked terrible. I pushed my bangs back with my hands, revealing my dark hairline and my pale forehead that's never seen the light through my dark hair.

I examined my hair in the light, the tip of the bangs that usually float around my right eye were dark blue from the ink. The skin around my eye was still blotchy and blue. I wondered if that was ever going to wash out and what my father would say. Then I remembered that no one cares. So I let my bangs go and they flopped down, messier and more ruffled than ever. Then I ducked down again and kept washing.

"Percy?" Grover walked up to me. "I'm so glad that you showed some self-restraint in there. I thought you were about to lose it and start punching that girl."

"We can't keep letting her get away with this, you know," Ethan walked up and stopped next to Grover.

"Oh come on, Ethan. That's so immature!" Grover intervened, sweat ran down his forehead, as he tried Ethan away from provoking me any further.

"She's on that show and she thinks she's a big shot," Ethan said.

"Yeah, she's nothing but a spoiled brat and she's really weird!" Leo said. All the boys except for Grover and Ethan were peeing in the urinals. It was actually kind of awkward because they were all right next to each other though.

"I heard her mom's pretty weird too, Nico spoke. Oh cool, I've never heard Nico speak before.

"We got to get her back, Percy," Ethan told me for like the 295th time in a row. He was just all about revenger, wasn't he? I stopped the faucet and looked at myself. The ink was gone, but left behind a blue tinge on my skin.

"Get her after school,"

~Linebreak~

~Afterschool~

~Annabeth's PoV~

"I feel ready for anything!" I beamed.

"Annabeth, please be careful," Piper told me.

"Don't worry about me. We're taping Child's Toy today so my boyfriend will be picking me up today," I twirled one of my mother's hammers I brought to school today just in case Percy tried anything. I sort maybe stole it from her closet full of the things she buys from those crazy catalogues. But it was one of many, and this one felt good in my hand, so I think I'm gonna keep it.

"Plus I'll just do this the whole time I'm walking to the car!" I twirled it faster and faster. "I learned this smooth move in my stage combat class with the acting troupe.

"It's handy for an actor but deadly to Percy!" I smiled, while the girls looked at me in horror. I kept laughing till I hit myself in the head. Then I started to cry on the inside.

"It's also deadly to you," Thalia said. She's always so sarcastic.

"You should be careful Annabeth," Hazel said.

"Oh, my head," I said and black crept into the corner of my vision, and I felt really dizzy for a second.

Juniper busted into the room. "Oh this is terrible!"

"Whaaa. . .?" I said intelligently.

"Percy and his gang have just kidnapped Piper!"

"What? Why did they take Piper?"

"Remember? She called him a monster," Hazel said.

.

"She did say some really mean things," Juniper pondered. I think I've been through enough to learn today that when Juniper ponders, it's usually not about something good.

"But I know I've said a lot worse stuff than she did," I commented. Why would they take Piper? She called him a monster? That's not even that bad! I've called him some pretty crazy things.

Suddenly Grover popped up out of nowhere and we all screamed.

"Yeah, but Percy's been saying that you're just too tough for him to handle," he informed us.

"Too tough?" I was truly honored. All this time I've been scared of his faces and scary aura but now I know that he's the one afraid of me! It felt great. But now wasn't the time to be celebrating.

"Sort of like the cobra and the mongoose," he said. I had no idea what that meant, but both of those animals were pretty tough so I took his word for it.

"I suppose I would be the mongoose in your little comparison, wouldn't I?" I scoffed and tried to act like I knew what he was talking about.

"Yeah, pretty much," he said and I knew I hit home. But I had to focus on the problem at hand.

"Juniper, tell me where they're holding Piper, quick!" I said.

"Out in the back," Before you could even blink I was gone. I ran through the halls and after a while, Grover caught up to me.

"Hey Annabeth, good luck! You're the only one that's been able to stand up to Percy,"

"Grover, whose side are you on anyway" I mean, aren't you always hanging out with Percy?" I asked a question I'm pretty sure everybody was thinking.

"Although Percy is my best friend, I do believe he's gone too far as of late,"

"That's lie! You monkey spy!" I hit him with mom's red plastic hammer and he tumbled back down the hallway behind me. "If I need your help I'll ask for it!"

I kept running as he yelled after me to wait. Long story short, I didn't wait up.

~Linebreak~

We arrived to see Piper in the pond behind the school. Ethan had a broom, and Percy was leaning up against a tree.

"Help me, please!" she screamed, and Ethan just pushed her head down with the broom, ducking her mouth and nose underwater.

He laughed, she cried. "Look at her, she looks like a big wet cat." The rest of the boys laughed, and she cried some more.

"You know, you said some pretty mean things to me, girl," Percy, not moving from his position leaned up against a tree with his arms crossed. She didn't reply, just stared at him with this scared look on her face.

I could really tell how she felt because once, I drowned in a pool in third grade. I needed CPR and everything. Trust me, it is not a good feeling, but I'm not totally sure about whether it was the drowning, or the fact that I got mouth-to-mouth from an 87 year old man.

"You said I was a monster." Percy said, Piper just kept quiet.

"Do you think I'm a monster now?" He quirked an eyebrow and her eyes went wide. The boys erupted into laughter, and Ethan kept pushing her underwater.

"Percy asked you a question, you better answer it," Ethan demanded.

"Piper!" I yelled. I kicked out Ethan's legs from under him and he fell into the pond himself. "Get out of the way!"

I helped her out of the pond. "Piper, are you okay?"

"Thanks, Annabeth," she whispered. I hugged her and let her rest a little farther away from the guys.

"Oh my god," Juniper's hand shot up to her mouth and covered it when she arrived to see a scared, wet Piper on the ground.

"How could they do that?" Hazel cried.

"You evil boys!" Thalia scolded.

My girls said these and many more. . . colorful statements.

Piper keeled over and coughed out water and Katie held her hair back. Percy just stared at us, it wasn't really the stare that made me snap, it was more the fact that he didn't seem to regret anything. No guilt, no shame, nothing. His dark, brownish-green eyes just kind of stayed on me, and I couldn't read any emotion whatsoever.

Then again, my eyes aren't pretty either, so I shouldn't be saying anything. They're dull and well, grey.

My girls walked Piper away, I'm guessing to the nurse's office, and I just stayed there, shaking with anger. I looked at him, my eyes crackling with electricity as if they carried little storms.

"Are you alright? Why are you shaking like that? What do you want from me?" His asked like he was concerned or something, but his voice carried zero compassion.

"No Percy, I'm not alright. I'm angry."

"Oh. So you're really, really mad. Well, who cares?" He cracked a smile and I wondered how he could laugh at the sickest jokes.

"The problem is, you do not want an angry Annabeth Chase."

And then I slapped him. I slapped that little idiot as hard as I could right in the face. My hand came back red and so did the handprint on his face.

"You know, that's the first time I've ever hit someone. Do you even care?" And it was true, I've never hit anyone. I've never felt the need to. II have a loving family, and great friends, on and off set. In acting, all I did was good fake hits that were designed to look like real ones. And I never really gotten angry either. I've always been one to let things sort of roll of my back.

"And this will be the first time I ever beat up a girl," He cracked his knuckles and his neck, but I didn't care. I just kept staring at him, my fists clenched so hard I was drawing blood with my nails. He drew his fists.

"Go ahead, hit me. It'll just prove that you're a no good son of a-" Suddenly, a bunch of sandbags fell on me out of nowhere. I couldn't move for a second under all the weight, but when I did, I looked at him, did he just. . .?

"Now I'm really mad! You big stupid jerk!" I stormed up to him and grabbed him by the collar.

"I didn't do anything to you. That wasn't even me." he said.

"You come with me. We're going to go talk in private." I literally dragged him off to the gym storage shed.

~Linebreak~

"Okay. It's just you and me now; so why don't we just calm down and work this out like adults. What do you say?" I sat on a pile of gym mats while Percy had his back facing me, suddenly very interested in jump ropes and hoola hoops.

"Well for one thing, you and I are not adults." he scoffed.

"Stop changing the subject, Percy." I said it in such a way that would even scare a bear away. A little trick I learn in the acting troupe. My problem was, he didn't even flinch.

"Look, Percy, I know you're not stupid. I mean, you're not smart, but you're not stupid. So why do you keep doing all these stupid, idiotic things?"

"Who knows, maybe I am stupid," Then I got really mad. I stood up.

"I'm serious! Why are you such a jerk to me? What did I ever do you to you? What did any of us ever do to you? The teacher's, the girls, the guys, the whole freakin' school! None of them deserved this!"

I kind of expected it to work like in the movies, where my sweet words get through to him and we become friends or something, but of course, it didn't.

In one quick, smooth movement, I found myself pushed up against the wall with both of his hands wrapped around my neck.

"I'm mean because I feel like it. You think your sappy words are going to fix me? Fat chance. Try and stop me one more time, you'll regret it." He let go of me forcefully and walked off, I coughed for a while.

"Hey!" I yelled after him as soon as I recovered my voice. He turned around.

"I'm not scared of you, Percy. Don't think you can threaten me like that and scare me off so easily. Your testing my patience and I'm about to run out." He just stared at me and then walked away.

~Linebreak~

~At Half-Blood Studio~

"Annabeth!" Mitchell gushed. "You're finally getting your big break with a major television appearance! It's so great! Congrats and good luck." What was he talking about? I'm already on Child's Toy.

"Thanks, but I don't need luck with a TV show. I need luck with coming up with a sweet plan." How could I beat Percy once and for all . . . He sure is strong. It's no use to try to beat him with plain force.

I was really focused on set that day. We were doing a special on martial arts and I punched Zach like, 24 times. I won this contest thingy for memorizing the most of Takenoko Showdown, this sequence of karate moves, in thirty seconds, and headed home with a nice, blue ribbon and this cool electronic red book thing. I didn't even get to see what it did because I was busy think about Percy.

~Linebreak~

I played a nice riff on my piano and started singing. It always helps me think.

"So," Mom spoke over my beauteous singing. She was typing into the red book I won from the contest on set. "Annabeth did well in the show, won a contest, and got this nifty electronic personality profile,"

"Yeah," Malcolm said. "But she's been acting strangely ever since we left the studio." He kept going on about how I need to change soon because it's bad for my career and that my behavior was weird and all that crap. All the while my mom was furiously clicking buttons in the book and muttering things about her favorite beverage and her Zodiac sign and stuff.

"Are you even listening to me? Hello?" Malcolm sighed.

"My personality type is . . ." Mom looked at the thing with intense emotion and I kept on singing about beating him,

"I have the personality of an angel; I'm kind to everyone around me and everyone loves me."

"That's not true, let me see that." Malcolm scoffed. She snapped in closed and gave him a sly look.

"Annabeth there really is something I must tell you," Mother called.

"Huh wh- ah!" Mom was up in my face with a mischievous smile. "In order to defeat your enemy, the best plan if to hit your opponent in a weak spot."

"In a weak spot?" She backed away. "Malcolm do you really think it's okay if it hit him there?"

"Some people say it would be unfair, but-" he was cut off by my mother laughing loudly.

"Well you know what they say, all's fair in love and war!" she laughed.

"But there's no love," I pointed out.

"Yet."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Okay."

~Linebreak~

"Everything's fair in love and war, yeah!"

"Everything's fair in love and war, yeah!" my recorder replied back, an octave higher.

"Gotta find a way to him in a weak spot,

hit him in a weak spot,

that's what mama taught!

Everything's fair in love and war, yo!

Gotta find a way to get him with a cheap shot, oh!

Yeah, cheap!"

I ended my song with a brilliant plan.

~Linebreak~

"Alright, move it, Percy's coming through, get out of the way!" Ethan made a huge entrance as usual. Percy walked in at exactly 7:00, one hour before school started, just like he did everyday. I got my bag of surprises ready.

"Take this Percy, it's a poisonous snake!" I threw a rubber snake at him and he didn't even flinch. It hit him in the face, and slid down before falling to the floor.

"Not scared? Okay, how about a lizard, and a centipede, and a beetle, and a praying mantis, and a frog!"

There was stuff flying through the air at him and he never flinched or screamed or even showed any emotion at all. Not once, not ever. The rest of the boys started yelling at me so I threw some rubber organs at them and they shut up, well they didn't shut up, they screamed and ran out of the room. Percy sat on the back counter and plugged in his earbuds and I got mad. I crouched down in front of him next to his desk.

"Percy, don't think I'm going to give up that easily."

And I started another ambush.

"Leaks. Onions. Hot peppers. Carrots. Celery," I showed various vegetables, hoping for some reaction. No such luck, so I got my costumes out.

"Psycho! Vampire. No skin!" I showed him a model human boy with half of it covered with skin and half of in not.

"Had enough? Are you ready to give up? How much more of this do you think you can take? Huh, Percy? You're not scared at all are you?!" I pointed at him. He just bobbed his head lightly to the music.

"Okay, I didn't want to have to do this but you left me no other choice, this will be painful." I came at him with a radio and a recording of a fork scratching a glass plate. He didn't even cover his ears, then again, he was wearing earbuds, so I yanked them out and ran up to the front of the room.

"Okay, how about this?" I scratched the chalkboard.

"Hey what are you-" Jason didn't get to finish because he passed out from the sound. I kept scratching the board until I started drooping, and eventually passed out myself.

~Linebreak~

I stormed through the halls, my head throbbing, my heart pounding, and my teeth grinding together so hard I think I chipped one or two. Nothing I tried worked.

Wait, you don't think . . . maybe he's a totally inhuman robot whose unaffected by emotional attacks. Then I saw Grover in the hall and a beautiful plan sprouted in my little blonde head.

Grover would know how to get him. I fast-walked over to him and he flushed when I didn't stop until our faces were six inches apart.

"Grover you're just the man to tell me what I need to know. Percy's Achilles' Heel." He rolled his eyes and smirked, then opened his mouth. But before he could tell me, he caught himself and snapped his mouth closed again; grimacing as if that was deadly close.

"O-Oh, I don't know," he let out a breath. I slapped my hand onto his shoulder.

"You sure would feel better if you told me." I lobbed on the charm. "Come on, please? It'll make me smile."

"But uh- I shouldn't. I . . ." he flushed and suddenly seemed to find his shoes a huge point of interest.

"Oh come on, Grover. You wanna help out your old friend Annabeth, don't you? So just tell me." He smiled nervously. "I'll be your best friend . . ."

He laughed nervously and then backed away down the hall at Olympic speeds. Like even faster than I fast-walked into the building every morning. That little brat fakes nervous just so he can avoid me and I let him go! Why would I do that? Urgh, I have to find a way to beat Percy, I just have to!

Or I'll go insane.

~Linebreak~

That classroom was chaos as always. Mrs. Hestia was crying at the front of the room as the girls and I ate lunch.

"Okay kids, please take your seats," Mrs. Hestia whined.

The girls at my table muttered something about going to see Piper after school. I wondered what Percy was up to. Sure enough, he was in the back of the room on that counter, blasting music in his earbuds and reading. Wait, I didn't know he read. That's awesome! I wonder if he's read Paper Towns, or The Fault in Our Stars!

Then I got a closer look at what he was reading. A Marvel comic. Typical. In the meantime, until I can figure out his weakness, I'll just have to put up with him and his abominations of good reading. Ethan threw a sandwich at Mrs. Hestia.

"If you don't like it, why don't you go get Mr. Bacchus to help you?" Ethan spat.

"Yeah, why don't you get your boyfriend Mr. Bacchus to protect you?" Frank mocked.

She stood there for moment, trembling, before running out yelling for Mr. Bacchus. They boys burst into a fit of giggles, and I can't lie, I chuckled a bit. Then I caught myself and stood up forcefully.

"Hey, when are you guys going to grow up and stop acting like idiots?" I screamed. The boys just kind of looked at me like I was an idiot for saying that.

"Get her," Nico muttered.

"You guys will never catch me! I have my ancient sword fighting techniques that I learned in st-" I forgot to watch where I was going and slammed my head onto a wall. I sat on the ground, dazed. Then the boys came at me with scissors. Wait what are they- then I realized. I mean it wasn't that hard. They had scissors, right?

After they had finished their job, I felt violated. They had snipped up my skirt so that it looked more like a waistband with tassels. Luckily, I had chose today to wear my emergency shorts, but it was still rude!

"Urgh! Percy did you make them do this to me? You did, didn't you? Huh?" I screamed at him.

"Actually, I didn't."

"What?" I was truly confused. I mean, they never do anything bad without Percy's permission.

"All I did was tell them to have fun with you if you ever tried to interfere, and hey, what do you know." he didn't even sound amused.

"You know what? Let's just keep this between you and me! Having them gang up on me isn't fair!" I was stopped by Ethan and Frank dragging me away. I ended up being tossed onto the school balcony. The worst was that it was going to rain, so it was really cold out and my skirt had been snipped.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I yelled.

"This is your punishment," Nico hissed before closing the door quietly. I ran up to the door, and twisted the handle. Locked. I slammed my fist on the door. I have a broadcast today! I'm going to be late and I've been looking forward to ice cream day! Until I heard the bell for the last class. School was out. I founded harder on the door.

"Guys, I have a meeting for my TV show today! I can't be late!" I pleaded. I know acting. One day late, and you could come to the set to find out you've been fired.

"In that case, we'll just keep you longer," Jason snickered. I wondered why I ever considered him okay.

Come on Annabeth, calm down. You got to find out the fastest and smartest situation to get out of here. I've got it! I utilize the rock climbing skills I learned in the acting troupe for the upcoming show! I think my experience can get me out of any jam!

All I have to do is climb down from here and I can make it to the station easily with minutes to spare! But first I need to tie a rope to these bars here. Oh wait. I have no rope.

Suddenly, the wind blew and a pink material blew right into my face. They were pink sweatpants. The name of the tag says they belong to 'RED'. I don't know who that girl is, but she wears my size! I slipped them on. My skirt was destroyed and it was getting kinda cold out here. I crossed my arms and shivered a little, and felt something in my shirt pocket. As I pulled it out, I realized it was my Barucha.

How could I have not thought of this earlier? I mean, the personality profile thingy I won said I had the personality of Athena! I should be smarter than this! But none of that mattered. I was going to call Malcolm and bust out of there. I clicked the owl button and heard a faint humming sound coming from it. I knew it worked. It took about four minutes for him to bust through the doors.

"Annabeth, what are you doing out here?" I ignored Malcolm's fussing and darted up to Percy.

"Look Percy, you may have won this time, but this is far from over!" he looked at he, his eyes dead set on my face.

"You're just lucky I'm late. Hurry up Malcolm!" I hollered before running down the stairs.

~Linebreak~

"What? Over?" I gushed out at the producer of Child's Toy.

"Yup. We wrapped up a couple minutes ago." Well that sucks.

"Look, it's my fault. I didn't get her here on time, don't blame her for it," Malcolm pleaded.

"Hey, it's nothing personal. We just have a really busy schedule this season. We can get her in next time."

"Wait, when is that?" I asked.

"I know that it's hard managing school and an acting career but our production schedule cannot be held up for anyone." he said.

Malcolm and I apologized for our inconvenience.

"I know you're still just a kid, but it's better to learn now than later that this is the nature of the business." This guy really does know how to make one feel bad, doesn't he?

Malcolm and I apologized some more.

"Well, got to fly. Ciao!" I winced when he said that. Adults shouldn't act like teenagers.

I kept muttering curses upon curses on Percy as we drove home.

"Hey, who's that kid by our house?" Malcolm asked nonchalantly. It was probably just a fan who found out where I lived. But when I got closer, I realized it was just Grover. I got out of the car and Malcolm pulled into the garage.

"Hey Grover," I began. "What are you doing here?"

"Annabeth, it's just that I, uh . . ." he looked at his shoes and I wondered that he must really like his shoes.

"Well spit it out," I said.

"It's just that I think Percy's gone too far." It's about time he came to me. "I'm going to tell you how you can beat him."

Finally.

"Oh, his weakness?" I asked. "Tell me; tell me, what is it?"

He whispered in my ear what it was.

"Oh so that's it, huh?" I snickered and my eyes lit up.

~Linebreak~

I sprinted into the living room in my pajamas to find my mom on the couch, her hair what done in a bun to resemble a little snake tamer mound. There was a fake snake coming out of it. Each time it came out, it terrified Miko, who was sitting on her head.

"Mom, I need to borrow some of the supplies you bought from that crazy catalogue!"

"Okay, just don't break anything," she said. I was surprised that she's was being so lenient about it.

I sifted through whoopee cushions and floating fish and ropes and various machines she likes to put in her hair. When I found it, I broke out into a grin.

"With this, Percy will be sorry he was ever born,"

Looking back on it, I realized that was a terrible, terrible choice of words.

Ok, so this chapter clocked in at:

Pages: 19

Words: 5704

This chapter did not turn out how I liked it, but I posted it because my brain feels like jelly. So you didn't get to find out his weakness, but then what would the next chapter be for?

Anyways, I'll reply to reviews next chapter in the beginning A/N. Speaking of reviews, can we get to say, 3? That would make me really, really happy! :D

Be sure to follow, make it your favorite, and review!

Follow your dreams!

BaiBai!

-Charlotte


	3. Slave Boy

**ME: Hello people!**

 **ME:We made it to the review goal! I got four! I was looking at the review and like breathing heavily, my brother was like "Are you okay?". Thanks for reviewing! And to those who didn't review, you are my enemy. Just kidding!**

 **ME:But, if you don't review this time I'll use my ancient sword fighting techniques that I learned in stage com-**

 **Percy: *knocks ProjectPercabeth out* God she's annoying. I think I'll take over.**

 **Percy:So blah blah blah, thanks for being god fans and stuff I'm gonna leave now this is boring.**

 **Annabeth: Wow, you're impossible *splashes ProjectPercabeth with cold water***

 **ME: Huh? OH yeah! I meant for this story to be dramatic but also with some comedic relief, so to all those who reviewed saying it was funny, I love you.**

 **Okay, so reveiws.**

 **pjojellybeans said:**

 **OMG this story is sooooo hilarious I just can't stop reading it! some parts are just so "OH WOW" I want to laugh out loud, keep up the good work!**

 **I love you. Thanks you for reviewing that comedy was kind of my intent. So thank you!**

 **DivineAuthorOfSassiness said:**

 **Continue continue continue! Last chapter I laughed my heart out. "You're gonna get mashed like potatoes!" OMG THAT WAS TOO FUNNY**

 **That mashed potatoes line was a good one, but my favorite was when she was like "Malcolm? Is it okay to hit him there?" I laughed. I love your username, it's really . . . sassy.**

 **Nico Di Awesome said:**

 **Great Chapter! What's the plan is it about eating seafood, Or something like that? Please update soon!**

 **Thanks! I cannot tell you, little one. XD**

 **Thanks for everyone reviewing and this A/N is massive so I'm gonna stop it here. Follow your dreams!**

 **Let's Begin!**

 **Intro:**

Hi! I'm Annabeth, a thirteen year old eighth grader. I star in a TV show called Child's Toy and I'm in an acting troupe!

Then there's Malcolm, my agent, boyfriend, manager, and chauffeur. He keeps my acting career intact. He's so great.

Mom is an award-winning novelist with an odd collection of hats.

Then there's my arch nemesis Percy. He's in my class and he ruins it every single day! He's such a jerk!

 _ **Previously on Child's Toy:**_

" _Hey, who's that kid by our house?" Malcolm asked nonchalantly. It was probably just a fan who found out where I lived. But when I got closer, I realized it was just Grover. I got out of the car and Malcolm pulled into the garage._

" _Hey Grover," I began. "What are you doing here?"_

" _Annabeth, it's just that I, uh . . ." he looked at his shoes and I wondered that he must really like his shoes._

" _Well spit it out," I said._

" _It's just that I think Percy's gone too far." It's about time he came to me. "I'm going to tell you how you can beat him." Finally._

" _Oh, his weakness?" I played dumb. "Tell me; tell me, what is it?"_

 _He whispered in my ear what it was._

" _Oh so that's it, huh?" I snickered and my eyes lit up._

 **Chapter 3: Slave Boy**

 **Annabeth's PoV**

"Oh! So Percy the brave is afraid of heights, huh?" I ignored Grover's warning about Percy beating him up for telling and kept talking to myself. "IS that's all, surely I can devise a plan that will take him down a notch. I'll challenge him to a contest that will expose to everyone his little phobia of high places!" I laughed evilly.

 **Linebreak, Brought to you by CeCe from ProjectPercabeth.**

I marched down the halls like I owned the place. Technically, I could, but who would want a school as part of their property?

"Today is the day that Percy will face the mighty Annabeth is a battle to the death!"

As soon as I made it to the day I slid it open with lighting speed.

"Perseus Jackson!" I yelled into the chaos. I kind of hoped that it would stop because I called out his full name and I know he hates that but instead, I got a soccer ball to the face.

"Annabeth, are you okay?" Juniper jogged up to me.

"I'm fine! Why do say that? I'm okay! Don't I look okay?" I slowly got closer to her, which made her cower and flush. Before I could actually do anything to her I turned my head to the chaos happening before us.

"SHUT UUUUP!" I shrieked. Everything stopped and all eyes were on me. Just how I like it. Percy looked up from his "book" that was really just another comic and I stomped over to him, throwing the ground into a tremor with every step. I yanked out his earbuds and got really close to his face.

"Perseus J-" I began,

"Don't call me that," he intervened, keeping a straight face all the while.

"Perseus Jackson," I ignored his request. "I challenge you to a duel." Every gasped like in the movies.

"Did she just say duel?" Frank whispered?

"Her against Percy, this will be a classic," Leo chuckled.

"She's crazy," Ethan said bluntly. My eyes flashed and he broke out in a cold sweat.

"We'll see who's _crazy,_ " I said, sickly sweet. I whipped around to face Percy, who put his earbuds in already. I yanked them out again. "This constant fighting between you and me isn't solving anything. I propose a match to determine whose boss."

"I think she's serious," Thalia whispered to Juniper.

"That's bad," Juniper whispered back.

"So, if you want to accept my challenge I'll be waiting in the gym after school," he told him. He reached for his earbuds and I smacked his hands. He crossed his arms back up. "If you're a no-show, I win by default!" I practically skipped to my desk.

"Okay kids, can you please take your seat so we can have class just this once?" Mrs. Hestia said and the front of the room.

 **Linebreak, Brought to you by CeCe from The Fangirl Nation**

The gym doors slip open and I knew today was the day the war ended.

There at the gym doors stood Class H's boys, with Percy standing in the middle of all of them. I giggle and got out my cheerleader pom -poms and waved them around.

"Here comes Percy! Here comes Percy! He will lose! He will lose! I will win! Yeah, yeah, yeah! Mashed potato, green tomato, and I know what he's afraid of! Percy is a loser!" I cheered "Okay girls, hit it! " I hollered.

"Got it!" Hazel and Piper worked together and closed the door behind the guys. They all turned around and gasped.

I laughed. "Now you've got nowhere to run, dear. Now one with the show! Check this out!" I gestured towards the part of the gym behind us."

"Is that my cue?" Juniper asked!

"Yes! We rehearsed this five times and you said you knew your cue! Don't tell me none of you were listening during maneuvers! Go! You're embarrassing me!"

"O-Okay," she jogged up to a little cord that was hanging from the ceiling.

"I'm supposed to pull this, right?" she asked.

"Yeah! Pull it already!" I yelled. A human-sized dummy fell from the ceiling and bounced around of a bungee cord. Percy's face contorted into something that was probably his fear face. Basically, his eye's narrowed a centimeter and his mouth opened a bit.

"So what do you think so far? Pretty good on such short notice, right? It's a Do-It-Yourself Bungee Jumping Kit. My mom has a ton of them if you're interested." I asked him. He just kept his face like that and I winked.

"It's actually completely safe, the dummy in actually a sandbag that weighs one hundred and seventy pounds," his breath hitched. What? Does he weigh more than that or something? Eh, doesn't matter. I held out a tiny microphone.

"Each of us will wear one of these mics when we jump. We can hear any sound that's made. Whoever gets scared and screams the loudest loses."

"No sweat," Ethan said.

"You could beat her at that easy," Jason said. Percy turned to Grover, who blushed and started sweating.

"So," I said. "Are you ready to get up there and take your leap?" He stared at me for a while before turning around and heading for the door.

"Aha! You running away from my challenge? Not man enough to face the music buddy? Can you believe it? Big boy Percy is running away from a little girl like me!" he stopped.

"Your contest is stupid. I've got better things to do with my time," he muttering, but his voice wavered and I knew he was scared. I got right next to his right ear and whispered.

"What, are you scared? Like an itty wittle baby?" he got to his left ear. "You wouldn't be afraid of heights or anything silly like that wouldn't you?"

"Oh come on, don't be stupid! Percy's not afraid of anything!" Leo said.

"Oh really? He because he seemed pretty scared to me," I said.

"Come on man, she's really calling you out here," Ethan whispered.

"Yeah, come on man," Jason whispered.

"Yeah man," I agreed.

"You can do anything she can do!" Frank cheered.

"I agree," I agreed.

"Hey, do you think Percy is just afraid of heights or afraid of losing?" Thalia whispered.

"He's afraid of something," Juniper whispered.

"It's clear by the dumb look on his face, he's clearly worried." I would never tell that his face was actually really attractive, but that's beside the point.

"Listen Annabeth," Grover said. "I don't think you guys should be doing this."

"STAY OUT OF THIS GROVER! There's nothing wrong about attacking someone's weakness if you're seriously serious about defeating them. It's not like he ever worried about me all those times he was mean. SO JUST BACK OFF OKAY?" I yelled/told him.

"Right," he caved.

"Come on, Percy. Don't run off so easily. The loser of the challenge has to do whatever the winner says. How does that sound?" he turned around at that one.

"And if I win, you don't interfere in my business anymore?"

"Sure, you got it!" he nodded.

"Cheeseburger, pickles, fries! You're the one that I despise! Hamburger, French fries, you don't know what your future lies!" I chanted.

"Attached the mic!"

Juniper tiptoed up to him and attached the mic to the collar of his shirt. Oh, happy day I did it! This will be no sweat, I love being in high places! Percy, you will soon be my slave boy!

 **Linebreak, Brought to you by CeCe from ProjectPercabeth**

Percy out his foot on the first step of the ladder. He paused, and was suddenly drenched in sweat. I skipped over to Nyssa, who had the controls.

"Is everything good here?" I asked .She flashed me a thumbs up and smiled. I looked back over at Percy who was practically dripping and had paused on the second step. It took him twenty minutes to climb the ladder to the last step. He sat there and looked down. I swear to the gods, it looked like it was raining Percy juice that's how much he was sweating.

"Come one, Percy are you waiting for Christmas?" I screamed.

"Christmas? Is it Christmas already?" Juniper wondered. I ignored her.

And then he jumped. He kept falling and falling and somewhere in there, he made a tiny grunting sound. Everyone heard it. I will win after all.

I dance around of the highest beam in the gym ceiling.

"Hey guys, I'm not scared at all!" I didn't handstands and frolicked around.

"Okay, here I go!" I yelled before doing a perfect swan dive and plunging to the ground. I laughed until I saw the ground hurdling towards me and suddenly I wasn't having so much fun anymore.

I let out a bloodcurdling scream that shook the Earth to its core and everyone in the gym, including me, passed out. The sound machine, which was meant to pick up even the smallest noises, exploded. Percy even twitched.

When we all woke up, no one except for Percy knows how long we were out, all eyes were on me. In a bad way. My ears were still ringing when Nyssa asked me:

"Um, Annabeth? I thought you said you loved high places? I thought you had it under control."

I did a small nervous chuckle. "You know, I'm really good when it's comes to high places . . . I guess I'm not so good when it comes to jumping from them, though." I paused. "It was my first time." I added. "I should have practiced." I commented on my mistake.

"You screamed really loud when you jumped. So I guess that means I win, doesn't it?" Percy scoffed.

"Defeated . . ." I whispered in despair.

 **Linebreak, Brought to you by CeCe from the Fangirl Nation**

"I can't believe he beat you in a bungee jumping contest," Mama said.

"I can't believe it either mom . . ." big fat tears of defeat with rolling down my face. I was so frustrated.

"It's just strange because when you were a little baby I used to toss you up fifteen feet in the air and you always had so much fun." she thought out loud. My mouth formed and 'o' shape.

"Fifteen feet? Did you ever drop her?" Malcolm worried.

"That must be why I have such a horrible fear of falling!" yelled at my mother for her carelessness.

"I'M SO MAD!" I started eating and ripping up the script I was reading.

"Stop it, Annabeth! That's tomorrow's script!" Malcolm tried to get it out of my hands up I bit his hand.

Mom continued sipping her tea and Miko kept running on the light-up hamster wheel that was sitting on her head. Then her editor came in.

"Excuse me ma'am, but your manuscript is four months late, and we were just wondering if you had it ready," he said.

"Take a hike!" mama snarled.

 **Linebreak, Brought to you by CeCe from ProjectPercabeth.**

"Total defeat has me singing the blues, man."

" _Total defeat has me singing the blue, man" my recorder sang back._

"Dark clouds are hanging over my head"

"I feel so sad I'd rather be dead"

"So unlucky, it seems unfair"

"Strike me with a knife and I won't care"

"What's gonna, what's gonna, what's gonna, oh"

"What's gonna happen at school tomorrow?"

 **Linebreak, Brought to you by CeCe from The Fangirl Nation**

Mrs. Hestia screamed at the various bugs and lizards that were now covering her body and desk.

"Cut it out, guys!" I slammed my fists down on my desk and screamed.

"Back off, Annabeth," Percy demanded. I liked the way my name sounded on his lips. IT was so smooth and nice and it was the first time in a while I actually liked my name. And that's saying a lot because IT like everything about myself. The fact I have golden hair, yet dark eyebrows, and my curls and everything. It's just my name that always gets me.

Mrs. Hestia ran out of the classroom, crying about how she couldn't take it and all I could do was watch.

"This kind of thing . . . it's all my fault." I realized.

"Annabeth, don't blame yourself. It will only make you feel more depressed." Grover acted like Jiminy Cricket again. I groaned and my friend told me to hang in there.

"Whatever I do, I'm going to make Percy cry uncle,"

"Uncle. Uncle. Uncle. Uncle. Uncle. Uncle. Uncle. Uncle." Percy repeated over and over again. We sauntered away, still saying uncle all the while. He smelled really good though, that's an upside.

"Annabeth, you can't let him get to you like this," Grover went philosopher mode on me and I judo flipped him. Mr. Bacchus walked in the scold them but was thrown out by Frank. The pizza guy came with like seven pizzas and Percy took three to devour by himself and Leo got two. Grover read a book of positive quotes in the corner and muttered something about it not working.

"Alright, you brats!" Mr. Bacchus started, but Percy pulled out his picture thing and he shut up right away. Then chuckled and said: "How's the pizza?" and the boys continued eating.

"Mr. Bacchus, why don't you bust those monkeys for being so dumb? You let them get away with murder every day! Aren't you sick of it?! You're a teacher, start acting like one. Boss those brats! What are you, a man or a-" I stopped immediately after looking at his face. His eyes were glossy and tears were forming at the corner of them.

"Hey stop that, you're a teacher you can't cry in class."

Tears were already rolling down his cheeks.

"Stop it right now." I meant for it to be firm but it came out all wibbly wobbly.

He started whimpering.

"Stop, you're gonna make me sad."

He flat out cried.

"You look pathetic."

He ran out, crying about how he couldn't take it anymore. I got mad and followed him. We ended up in his office.

"It's my fault!" he blubbered.

"What exactly is the problem? Cause I gotta tell ya, it looks like you ate some bad fish or something." I stopped feeling sorry for the guy and put on my brave face.

"See, the truth is . . ." He started, before catching himself. "This really isn't the kind of thing I should be talking to a student about," he muttered.

"Just get everything off your chest. You'll feel a lot better when you do. Like a bird!" I coaxed him.

"Yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe I will feel better." he sighed. "Well the truth is, you see, its just- well I- I, um- you know-, well your teacher and I, we're sort of . . . well . . ."

"The two of you are boyfriend and girlfriend," I finished.

"Huh?" he flushed.

"Right?" I asked. His head dropped and he paused for a second, and then let his head hang down in shame.

"Yes."

"Okay, go on."

"Most of the time Mrs. Hestia and I would take our breaks in the nurse's office, but one day, that little brat Percy found out about it."

"Percy?"

"Yeah, he snuck a picture of us one day!" he groaned.

"So what?" I asked.

"It was just one of those things. We didn't mean to, it just happened."

"So, you were kissing?" I asked, but that was all I pulled out of his messed up speak. He paused for a second, and dropped him head.

"Yes."

"OH YUCK!" I screamed, he flew back in his rolling chair and hit the door with a sickening _crack_.

"You don't have to get so upset about it," He muttered.

"Sorry. That was just a little projecting trick I learned in my acting class." I apologized.

"It's cool." he said feebly.

"You know, teachers kissing at school is a little too much for me to handle right now." i rubbed my temples, which were pounding at the moment. "So I'll do a little dance to get my mind off it!" I did the cha-cha in place.

"Stop dancing, it's terrible," Mr. Bacchus confirmed and I was greatly offended, but I just stopped dancing.

"Anyway, Percy's been using that photo to control us ever since. If we do anything, he says he'll show the photo to the principle. I don't want to lose my job." he sighed in defeat.

"No way!" I was flabbergasted. By they way, I love that word- flabbergasted. Flabbergasted . . . Anyways, Mr. Bacchus should have known better. But on the other had I can't just let Percy get away with this!

 **Linebreak, Brought to you by CeCe from ProjectPercabeth**

"You're a low-down coward!" I thought about Percy as I said my line for Child's Toy. I was dressed like some kind of jazzed-up Power Puff Girl.

"That was great Annabeth, take five!" the director, Apollo, hollered before making his way over to the vending machine.

"Annabeth, that was a great performance! You were so believable, I sure was convinced. I was honestly beginning to feel like I _really was_ a low-down coward for a second there. You know?" Zach pondered. He was dressed like a giant crab, and he was fishing for compliments. Again.

"Ah, it's cool. I just thought about that _idiot_ at school to get my emotions all ramped up.

"Idiot? What idiot are you talking about?" Zach nosed.

"How can I get that picture of the teachers kissing away from him?" I pondered. I sat down with a smoothie Malcolm bought me and sipped on it.

"Photo? Teachers kissing? Sound interesting. So, tell me more. Go ahead!"

"If you _do_ manage to get the photo away from him, wouldn't that get you out from under his thumb?" Malcolm asked. I thought about it.

"Oh, I'm sure it will, but we can talk about that later. I want to hear about the teachers kissing." Zach told Malcolm, Malcolm ignored him.

"Then how? It's not like he's going to hand over the photo out of the kindness of his own heart," I thought out loud.

"That may be true, Annabeth, but if you tell me more about this photo, maybe I can help you find a solution for your problem." I wondered when his guys was going to shut up because he was getting _really_ annoying.

"There might be a way," Malcolm said.

"Hold that thought, Malcolm. I still want to hear about the teachers kissing at school." my hands itched to judo flip Zach.

"An eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth," Malcolm prompted.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"He'll explain all of it in just a minute. But first, what about the kissing teachers photo?!" Zach was getting frustrated, and so was I.

"What you have to do if figure out how to get an embarrassing picture of this Percy kid. You can use his own bribery system against him and force him to give up the photo," Malcolm said.

"Oh I get it! That's a brilliant idea!" I downed the rest of my smoothie.

"I'm sure it is, but first you need to-" I finally judo flipped Zach.

"Oh Malcolm, you're a genius!" I hugged my boyfriend.

"Some might call it unfair, but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire," but it came out all muffled because I attached myself to his face.

"Oh Malcolm! I love the way you can be so cold-hearted and cruel! And I know just the person who could help me!"

"You mean that kid from the other day?" Malcolm asked.

"You better watch out Percy! Operation Eyeball for an Eyeball, Toothball for a Toothball is about to commence!"

"What's a toothball?" Malcolm asked no one in particular.

 **Linebreak, Brought to you by CeCe from ProjectPercabeth.**

I popped up from behind the bush next to Grover, all dressed up in my Sherlock Holmes outfit. He practically jumped out of his skin.

"Is this Percy's house?" he nodded. It was a blue two story flat. There was nothing special about it. No flowers, decor, nothing. It was just a plain house with nothing to it.

"How do you like my detective outfit? It's actually Sherlock Holmes suit. I borrowed it from the acting troupe," I asked.

"I think you might be getting too carried away," Grover said. I ignored it because it wasn't a compliment.

"And this," I held out my camera. It was one of those cameras that prints out the picture as soon as you took it. My mom brought it from her crazy catalogue. "It's an instant camera! We'll use this to take a mega embarrassing picture of Percy!" I cackled evilly.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Grover questioned. I knew his goody two shoey-ness would ruin everything!

"Of course I do!" I slapped him back and he winced.

"That's what I thought . . ."

"So how do we get him outside?" I pondered.

Suddenly we heard a girl's voice coming from inside the house.

"It's all your fault!" Then there was a huge crashing sound. "Get out of my face!"

"Grover, who was that yelling?" I whispered.

"His big sister, I think," he answered. The door opened and we kept a low profile.

"Go on! Get out of here! I'm sick of you bugging me!" the voice yelled again.

"I'll leave it I want to! You don't own this house!" I voice I recognized as Percy's rattled out of the house.

"Shut up! And stop mouthing off to me all the time! Why don't you go out and play in the highway?!" Percy walked out of the house with his head down.

"You're a devil!" the voice called out after him. "I hope you leave and never come back, you hear me?" Percy walked down the steps. I little devil? His sister sure is mean to him. It's kind of unbelievable she would say something like that. There was a sound of glass breaking and my head snapped up. Percy had smashed one of the lanterns by his house with his fist. Blood trickled from his fist but he didn't seem to care. Poor Percy.

I heard footsteps and Grover grabbed my hand and ducked back down behind the bush. When I looked at him all he did was hold with finger up to his lips.

"Ssh, here comes his dad." he scolded me for standing up. His dad took one look at Percy and walked past him, not even caring that his son was bleeding and was outside at nine o' clock.

"Are you serious? That was his dad and he didn't even talk to him! He didn't even say a word! Why would he-" I sighed. "Why?" Percy kept his head down and walked away from the house.

"What are we gonna do? He's taking off." Grover whispered but I didn't answer. "Hey, Annabeth?"

"I really wanted this picture, but now taking it just doesn't feel right. In fact, I kind of just feel . . . sad. And he looks sad too." I said absently.

"Annabeth, I think we should just call it off." Grover touched my arm and I shook it off.

"No, we'll get him anyways." I smiled. Getting pantsed once isn't going to hurt, right?

Wait, did I says pantsed? No- I meant . . .

Yeah, I meant pantsed.

"Okay." Grover looked down casted, holding his book or positive comments.

 **Linebreak, Brought to you by CeCe from The Fangirl Nation**

"Okay, he just went into the park," I whispered to Grover. I looked at Percy, who was licking his wound on her hand and walking, his other shoved into his pocket.

"Now you'll get it, monkey boy." I smiled mischievously. "Alright Grover, get ready it's time to commence Operation Eyeball Toothball!"

"You know sometimes, you really confuse me." Grover said bluntly, but I ignored him.

"Let's go, Washington!"

"Isn't it Watson?"

"Doesn't matter!"

We fumbled around in the bushed for a while because Grover was being a chicken and didn't want to follow the plan. We were kind of loud, so my only hope was that Percy, who had ripped a little bit off of the sleeve of his shirt to from a bandage around his arm, didn't hear. Eventually, I managed to kick Grover out of the bush and he land ten feet away from him. He looked around, leaves and twigs in his curls before he spotted Percy and went pale.

"Hurry up, I'm not getting any younger!" I whispered screamed at him.

"I thought child stars never age," he whispered back.

"True," I agreed. "Now go!" I got at it again. I'm gonna get him this time.

"Oh hey Percy! What's going on? Imagine running into you on such a lovely morning as this." He gestured behind him at the pitch black sky. We winced from his bad acting and I winced because of secondhand shame. "Hey what happened to your hand?" Percy looked at him intensely, before looking away and muttering: "Nothing."

"Now Grover! Go!" I whispered screamed again. "Stop stalling!"

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry," he almost chanted as he fast walked over to Percy with his head down and him eyes squeezed shut.

"What?" Percy said. His eyes widened when Grover stepped around him and pulled his pants down, _and_ his boxers. I snapped a picture. Percy slowly turned his head around. "You little punk," he growled, and yanked his pants up. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?" he shrieked. I laughed out loud and he snapped his head towards the bush.

"I really got you this time, Percy!" I snapped the picture off of the camera and showed it to him. "I got a nice picture of you with your pants down!" I blew on it; it was still developing. Then i waved it back and forth in the air to make it go faster. "My, my! This is going to be a good one! You know- how would you feel about me making a bunch of copies and posting them _all_ over school?"

He stepped forward. "You wouldn't" he snarled.

"Oh now would I really? Awww, are you're mad now, aren't you? I was just using the same tactics you used against the teacher! How do you feel? Upset? Angry? Frustrated? Well you should be, Percy!" I let out an especially loud laugh, which made Grover flinch on the ground where he sat behind Percy. He turned around, and looked at Grover with that same feral expression he looked at me with.

"And if you even _think_ about touching Grover the picture goes out for sure!" I yelled and Percy froze, holding Grover up by the head. I gave him "the look" and he dropped Grover.

"Haha! And if you think you can rough me up and take it from me," I held out my Barucha and clicked the owl button. "Think again!" I knew Malcolm was coming with the car from where he stood guard, with was at the entrance to the park.

"Try to catch me!" I did cartwheels and backflips and other stuff I learned in the acting troupe and Malcolm pulled up. I handed him the picture and he drove off yelling: "Hey kid, do anything bad and the photo gets out!" brandishing the photo. Percy broke out into a cold sweat and looked around like a deer in headlights.

"So then," I put one of those fake detective cigar things that blow out bubbles and gazed at him. "Let's get to it, kay?" His gaze burned holes in my very soul but I didn't care. I could easily order him to stop looking at me that way and he would stop. I could tell him to go take a hike and he would do it.

"I want you to burn that picture of the teachers kissing in the nurse's office."

 **Okay so this chapter clocked in at:**

 **Pages: 19**

 **Words: 5250**

 **Characters (including spaces): 28439**

 **Character (without spaces): 23158**

 **So this was a really necessary chapter because Percy turns into slave boy! Annabeth has got him now! And we also learn a little bit about Percy's family. Talk about bad first impressions, am I right?**

 **Percy: You're not funny.**

 **Me: Oh.**

 **So anyways, I hope you guys like this chapter. My favorite scene was the part where Annabeth screamed as she jumped. What was yours? Have a fabulous day guys!**

 **Follow your dreams!**

 **BaiBai!**

 **-CeCe**


	4. And Then The Tables Turned

**Hey people!**

 **So I'm sorry I haven't been updating, like, basically daily. I realized that I wasn't working hard enough on my other fanfiction, Balance. And I change my user! It's The Fangirl Nation now. I really like it.**

 **So.**

 **Mkay so reveiws. Okay.**

 **BlueShadowhunter said:** **Cute1 Great so far!**

 **Thanks! I was shooting for that! And I like your user, can someone say mysterious?**

 **Guest said:** **Abysmal**

 **Well that's rude. That actually really hurt. Now I'm sad, great. Thanks. (That was sarcastic, if you didn't notice.)**

 **So that concludes the A/N for today. Without further adieu, the chapter!**

 _ **Previously on Child's Toy:**_

 _"I really got you this time, Percy!" I snapped the picture off of the camera and showed it to him. "I got a nice picture of you with your pants down!" I blew on it; it was still developing. Then I waved it back and forth in the air to make it go faster._

 _"My, my! This is going to be a good one! You know- how would you feel about me making a bunch of copies and posting them all over school?"_

 _He stepped forward. "You wouldn't" he snarled._

 _"Oh now would I really? Awww, are you're mad now, aren't you? I was just using the same tactics you used against the teacher! How do you feel? Upset? Angry? Frustrated? Well you should be, Percy!" I let out an especially loud laugh, which made Grover flinch on the ground where he sat behind Percy. He turned around, and looked at Grover with that same feral expression he looked at me with._

 _"And if you even think about touching Grover the picture goes out for sure!" I yelled and Percy froze, holding Grover up by the head. I gave him "the look" and he dropped Grover._

 _"Haha! And if you think you can rough me up and take it from me," I held out my Barucha and clicked the owl button. "Think again!" I knew Malcolm was coming with the car from where he stood guard, with was at the entrance to the park._

 _"Try to catch me!" I did cartwheels and backflips and other stuff I learned in the acting troupe and Malcolm pulled up. I handed him the picture and he drove off yelling: "Hey kid, do anything bad and the photo gets out!" brandishing the photo. Percy broke out into a cold sweat and looked around like a deer in headlights._

 _"So then," I put one of those fake detective cigar things that blow out bubbles and gazed at him._

 _"Let's get to it, kay?" His gaze burned holes in my very soul but I didn't care. I could easily order him to stop looking at me that way and he would stop. I could tell him to go take a hike and he would do it._

 _"I want you to burn that picture of the teachers kissing in the nurse's office."_

 **Intro:**

 **Hi! I'm Annabeth Chase, 8th grade, age 13. That age and I'm already a TV star!**

 **My boyfriend/chauffeur/manager's name is Malcolm.**

 **My mom is Susan Chase. You've probably heard of her. Award winning novelist? Yup.**

 **Wait! There's Percy Jackson! He's the worst kid in my class. Probably the worst kid who ever lived! Every day, him and all his little monkey friends terrorize the classroom! I decided to fight back. And I won! Then I lost. And then I won again! Then I lost. But in the end, I totally caught Percy with his pants down!**

Chapter 4: And Then The Tables Turned

Setting: Classroom, before school

Annabeth's PoV

"Let's have them," I said.

"So these are the pictures of the teachers-" Grover took one look at the photo and his face practically burst into flames. He just kept staring at his and I began to get concerned.

"Grover, do you need and ice pack?" I offered him an ice pack that I always kept handy because when you're on stage for a long time sometimes your feet start to hurt and you need an ice pack. It was actually one of those cuddly cooling pack that they advertise on TV.

"No, I'm good," he just kept staring at the photo and it made me kind of uncomfortable so I turned him around so he wasn't looking at Percy and I. I whipped back around to Percy who was slouching on a desk with his feet up. He had put on a blue t shirt, contrary to the blue sweatshirt he always wore that had a trident and said "CHB", whatever that stood for. He had a blue baseball cap on to cover up his massive bed head from when I dragged him out of his house this morning. Thought it wondered why he needed one. His bed head looked like his original, messy, sea swept hair that he always wore. I like that style on him, "he has messy written all over him" as my hairdresser Mitchell would say.

"You better not be holding out on me mister. If I find out you have so much as one copy left, your picture goes viral," I warned Percy.

"I said that's all," he said through clenched teeth. By the way his face looked, I could tell he really did not want to be here.

"Really?" I asked. Rather safe than sorry.

"Yeah." I got up really close to his face.

"Really, really?" I asked again. By the way, he smelled like sea spray, salt, cologne, and a hint of mint. It sounds really gross but it's not and I just couldn't get enough of it. But that's beside the point.

"Good." I smiled. "Right, now from today on you better behave yourself. No more bugging the teacher or interrupting lessons, you got that?" he didn't answer and I got really annoyed. It didn't matter the way he smelled. I didn't like him. He just kind of looked at he like I was some kind of idiot.

"Don't give me that look!" I glared at him and he looked away like I was Medusa or somethings. "You realize you're going to have to do what I say or else I'm going to show the picture, so you might as well start now," I commented and he still didn't look my way. I made my way towards the door, waving the picture.

"Okay, I guess you don't mind the whole world seeing you with your pants down," I sang and he turned around.

"Wait."

"That's better." I grinned and strode back toward the two boys. "So, as I was saying before you so rudely interrupted, you're going to have to do whatever I say and that means be a good little monkey, okay?" I patted his head mockingly and he slapped it away. How rude.

"Fine, whatever," he said.

"Wait, what?" I said very intelligently. I was expecting him to put up more of a fight.

"You heard me. I never really liked doing that stuff anyway, but all those morons got a kick out of it, so I just went along. It's not my fault things got out of hand. It's not like they had to do every little thing I told them to," he confessed. I slammed my fist down on the dead he was sitting on which caused him to jolt a little.

"Come on, it wasn't _anything_ like that and you know it. I mean, I agree that the boys in this class are dumber than a bunch of monkeys, but you _liked_ being the boss monkey man, didn't you? So don't just sit there a play innocent like you had nothing to do with it! The boys all liked going along with you!" I scolded him while Grover nodded in the background.

"Shut up!" he proclaimed. "It's already bad enough that you dragged me out of bed this early, I'm not going to listen to you yelling at me too. Jeez."

"Well would you have rather had this talk in front of all your little goons, is that it?" I smirked, and he said nothing.

"Can you just listen to her?" All eyes were on Grover when he spoke up. "It's just that lately I think you've . . . you've been going a little too far, you know? Just please, maybe Annabeth can turn you around?" Percy just turned around again and gave a sort of nod and I knew I had won.

~Linebreak~

Percy's PoV

"Percy, you're here early. Were you preparing something? What're we going to do today?" Ethan badgered me.

"I'm done with all that," I said.

"What?" Leo squeaked. It was actually kind of funny because lately his voice had been cracking and he kept bragging about how it was going to drop like mine did to everyone.

"Maybe you guys should start thinking about high school and actually learn stuff. I mean, the way things are going you're all gonna end up flunking out of the eighth grade," I hoped I could turn them around so they would stop acting and my photo wouldn't go viral and I could steal it back somehow. Then I thought that she had her chauffeur bring one home and they're rich so they could have made like a million copies by now.

"Percy, come here please," Annabeth peeked out of the doorway and gestured me to come outside.

"What do you want?" What could she want? I did everything she said and Mrs. Hestia isn't even crying, oh wait she is. But it's not because of us! It's probably her boyfriend or something.

"Just come here, I want to tell you something. And you better be quick about it or else you're exposed."

"Exposed?" Frank questioned. I would totally tell Frank, he's like one of my best friends, but as you didn't know already, I'm kind of a private person.

"Damn. What's wrong with this lady?" I shoved my hands in my pockets and trudged over.

~Linebreak~

Percy's PoV

Lined up in front of me were all the girls in the entire class. Is it Valentine's Day or something? Because if she asking me to make chocolate for all these people I'd rather be "exposed".

"So here's the deal," Annabeth said. "You know you caused everybody nothing but grief lately and you know it was wrong, right? Well here's your chance to start making up for it. You can apologize to all these girls." She gestured at the huge wall of long hair and dresses. I didn't speak for a while. I kind of dozed off.

"Come on."

I just kept dreaming of pizza airplanes.

"Come on."

I thought about what I'm going to eat for dinner.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Annabeth got louder and louder till it snapped me out of it.

Why was she yelling at me? It's not like I didn't answer for three minutes, oh wait, I didn't. It's just that pizza airplanes would be so cool. You could fly them, and then when it's time for a lunch break, you could eat a little bit of them and it stead of coach, business, and first class, there would be cheese, pepperoni, and supreme class. And there wouldn't be any flight attendants because people wouldn't get hungry! I think I'm going to invent that when I grow up. But that would conflict with me being a marine biology major. I hope someone invents that one day. We need pizza airplanes. Then I snapped out of my little daze and realized I'd been drooling. That's the good thing about being the "boss monkey" you could totally just doze out and think about pizza airplanes and no one would even notice. They would probably just think you're thinking about some sinister thought or something. I wiped my mouth and got to the apologizing part.

"Oh fine, I'm sorry already," I mumbled and crossed my arms. For second, I thought that was the end of it, but it wasn't. She brought out this little red and yellow hammer and I knew I was a goner.

"You call that a good apology? You really don't get it do you? You made these girl's lives a living nightmare for the past few months and that's all you give?" I got one club on the head for every syllable she spoke. It left this kind of dull pain that didn't hurt that much but was really excruciating at the same time. The hammer scrunched up when it hit you, so it's not like I was being hit his solid plastic. The actually hammer part was over sized, kind f==of like a whack-a-mole hammer but bigger. Why didn't _she_ get suspended for hitting me? I never even hit anyone and I get suspended all the time! Last week she _slapped_ me on the face and I had this red mark that really stung! But no, America's little cutie can't get suspended, she's too goody-goody. I had this whole silent argument with her in my head that I totally dominated. Then I realized that I been just standing there, clutching my head for a couple minutes.

"Are you seriously ignoring me at a time like this? You have something to say, say it! Go on!"

"Cut it out, already that hurts!" I yelled, still clutching my head that throbbed.

"That's nothing compared to how you made us feel! There's only so much our hearts can take, you know?" she hollered right back.

"That's right! You owe every one of us an apology. Especially Piper here." Thalia stepped up and shamed me. Wait, who's Piper? I looked over the direction Thalia was pointing to and laid my eyes on a sort of familiar girl. She had the same dark brown, messy straight hair with a feather in it that I remembered. Her eyes looked like they changed color at will and her skin was tan, lighter than Hazel's but darker than mine. It was the first time I've ever acknowledged that a girl was pretty, besides Annabeth. Annabeth was the prettiest girl I had the disgrace to know. Then I realized the Piper was that girl we threw in the pond. We really did something mean to her, didn't we?

But she's the one who should apologize to me. She called me a monster just like . . . never mind. In short, she deserved everything we did to her. But standing there, watching her tremble at the sight of me, the "monster" who traumatized her, nothing felt right anymore.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry." I let my head fall down in shame. The girls muttered to each other in awe that Percy Jackson could actually be nice. That kind of hurt. I'm a nice person, right? I found my hat lying about fifty feet away from me and picked it up. I place it back firmly onto my head and pulled it down a little so my eyes were shaded.

"We finished here?" I shoved my hands into my pockets.

"Alright, just behave yourself. Because next time, I won't go so easy on you," Annabeth pulled a sinister grinned and I strode away, my head still pounding from the hammer beat down I had. What is that thing anyway? And why does she have it?

She's crazy, that's why.

~Linebreak~

Annabeth's PoV

Setting: Classroom.

It was absolutely beautiful.

The classroom was quiet and still. Everyone is their desks which were, in fact, on the floor. He had our literature books out and we were going to do this character analysis on this _old age sticks_ by ee cummings. It was pretty cool. The poem was all jumbled up and there were parenthesis and " &" signs everywhere and I was just itching to learn.

Mrs. Hestia stood at the front of the room. I could practically hear her heartbeat thumping. She gulped and took a deep breath. She obviously was new to quiet classrooms and concentration. This was the advanced or, PA classroom so knowledge was basically floating through the air. Then I wondered how all these monkeys could be in here when they do nothing. I always feel bad when new kids when moved up to PA and they expect to advance and grow but all they get it smacked in the face with a desk. Then they either get sucked up into the monkey current, or the girl current. but some stay neutral. Like Pollux and Castor. They never do monkey stuff and somehow manage to totally disregard all the drama. Their twins so they stick together, and do homework. They don't cause trouble, but they don't fight for rights like the girls do. They're neutral.

"Okay class; let's uh . . . let's get started." Mrs. Hestia directed. He voice boomed in the quiet classroom. I she was so used to yelling that she didn't even think to lower her voice. The only sound what coming from Percy, his leg bounced and he was glaring that the poem and quietly sounding out words. I remembered that he was dyslexic, my mother told me. Don't ask how she knew, just go with the flow.

"Is it really over?" he muttered, half to herself, half to me. I winked at her and smiled. She smiled back, a silent thank you.

"So, Ethan, would you please read from the beginning?" She smiled and for once, she seemed like a normal teacher. It seemed like we did this every day. She wrung out our brains and gave us some homework and we all went home with our brains fried. IT was great. Until boss monkey number two had to go ruin it.

"How 'bout you read it yourself, lady?" Ethan spat. Mrs. Hestia's soft smile dropped immediately and she stood there, wide-eyed. I stood up politely and smoothed out my dress. I shot Ethan a nice smile and he stuck his tongue out. My blood boiled but I kept the fake smile etched on my face. I rummaged through my backpack, and he just looked at me all puzzled. Percy looked at me in horror. He knew exactly what I was getting out.

I whipped my out my hammer and Ethan started at it. Percy did too. Percy probably thought I was going to hit him, but I wasn't.

I stopped right in front of Ethan's desk and brought my arm back all the way and whacked him so hard the chair he'd been tilting back on flew back and he tumbled right into Pollux's desk. He stood back up and did the walk of shame down the aisle and back to his desk before yelling:

"Hey, cut it out! I swear one day I'm going to-"

"Read." Percy growled from his spot in the back of the room. Except he wasn't on the counter. He was actually in his desk. I inwardly squealed.

"What happened to you Percy?" Ethan whispered. Percy just stared at him with that wild expression that scared me. It felt so long since he looked at me that way, yet it's only been a couple of weeks. I wasn't even scared of it anymore, it fact I found it kind of hot. Like an older, untamed, hellion. The same didn't go for Ethan, because he looked absolutely terrified.

He stood up and read the confusing poem from beginning to end.

"old age sticks

up Keep

off

signs)&

youth yanks them down(old

age

cries No

Tres)&(pas)

youth laughs

(sing

old age

scolds Forbid

den

Stop

Must

n't Don't

&)youth goes

right on

gr

owing old."

Throughout the poem his face contorted into a look of total and utter confusion. By the end, Mrs. Hestia had tears in her eyes.

"Come on, teacher, stop crying, you've gotta keep it together," I whispered screamed. from my spot in the front row.

"I'm sorry I'm just so happy," she smiled and sniffed. Her eyes were glossed over and she was using her sleeve to wipe them.

"Well that's good because we've got a whole lot of catching up to do." I said.

"Oh yeah, that's right!" she turned back to her book and called on Jason to do the next reading.

~Linebreak~

"So then what happened?" Zach interrogated me on the set of Child's Toy.

"That's it." I shrugged from by desk.

"It seems that Annabeth's fans from all over the world were so worried about how she was down in school that they sent a ton of fan letters!" Zach said over-charismatically. I looked around and we were surrounded by files of letters and boxes. I knew that half of them were just props made from Styrofoam and fiberglass and other stuff. You know, for kicks.

"Really, all for me?" I looked at the camera and smiled. "Thanks, all of you that was so nice but things are just peachy again!" I picked up a couple of real letters and read them out loud for emphasis. "I'll read all of these in my spare time!" I lied right to the camera.

"Really? It all worked out, huh?" Zach put his elbows on my desk and his chin in his palms.

"Yeah it's cool," I played it off. Then I realized something and smacked his head back. Well, I wouldn't say slapped, more like a slightly forceful pat. I jabbed my finger into his nose.

"But you know, if you hadn't made such a big deal out of it, you wouldn't have scared everyone," I scolded him and he gave a light chuckle.

"Me and my big mouth," he turned and faced the camera, and the laugh track played.

"Anyways," I looked at the camera again and said my line. "I feel great now. Like a weight has been lifted from my nose." I knew what the real saying was, it's just that here on Child's Toy, I'm not necessarily the sharpest tool in the shed.

"You mean lifted from my shoulders," Zach corrected.

"Huh? What do you mean? What do _your_ eyes have to do with it?"

"You know, maybe you should think of another saying," Zach suggested.

"Okay." I walked up right to the camera so it was only getting my face, and gave the signature bright, Annabeth Chase smile. "How about all's well it ends well?"

"That's a wrap!" The director yelled and we dispersed. What a great day.

~Linebreak~

I sprinted down the hallways of Half Blood Academy. I finally have a peaceful day of class to look forward to and I had to go ahead and be late because I totally overslept! I screeched to a halt in front of the classroom door and slid it opened quietly.

"Hey guys sorry I'm late I-" My voice was rips away from me and lost in the noise of the chaos going on in the classroom. There were boys everywhere and the desks were not, in fact, on the floor.

"All of you please take your seats!" Hestia screamed but her voice met the same fate as mine. This could only mean one thing. Percy freaking Jackson just broke the deal he made with me and rounded up his goons again. My hair was probably standing on end and my eyes crackled like a storm.

"Percy, I thought you said you were done with this." I said, deadly calm. He shrugged. "Oh I see. You're a liar. Well, I hope you don't mind me using this" I brought the photo out of my backpack, and before I could fully wield it, he grabbed my wrist.

"Relax, I didn't do it."

"What?" I didn't believe it.

"Annabeth, the guys have a new leader, Ethan." Hazel notified me like some kind of iPhone and gestured to Ethan laughing the middle of the wreckage.

"Ethan? I don't believe it." I mean, this was Percy's ex-top-goon we were talking about. He needed a leader to basically function. Kind of like Siri. What is she without the iPhone user to activate her? But then again, Percy mentioned something about Ethan being the supreme source of sinister suggestions. And oh my god, that was a really good alliteration. I better write that one down.

"Guess he got picked to be new "boss monkey" Percy made air quotes with the one hand that hasn't supporting his chin on the desk. I imagined a monkey with Percy's really old head on it, tagging a monkey Ethan and saying "Tag you're it"

"And you're just going to let it happen? You're the old boss monkey, do something!" he rolled his eyes and made this sort of _tsk_ sound with his tongue and stood up. The boys kept laughing about something that was probably really stupid before Percy interfered.

"Hey." The laughter ceased to exist and all eyes were on Percy. "Aren't you tired of this yet? Why don't you just knock it off?" Ethan looked at Percy with betrayal written all over his face before whipping back around.

"Hmph. You know, I don't have time listen to losers," I could tell that Ethan was straining really hard to say that. He always looked up to Percy in some twisted sense of the world. Percy made a sound that Ethan analyzed as amusement.

"Hey what's so funny?" Ethan grilled Percy with his best feral expression and I could tell he was just trying to mock Percy's 100x scarier one. But he failed to do so, it just kind of looked like he was constipated and about to sneeze all at the same time.

"Yesterday, you were all standing in line to kiss my butt." Percy stated the obvious. The boys would lick the guy's shoes to get closer to him! I'm not kidding. Ethan licked Percy's shoes a couple months ago because Percy dared his to, and in turn, he got one of Percy's hats.

"No one even likes you anymore! You why don't you just back off, Mr. High-and-Mighty? From now on, I'm the boss, and I'm gonna show these guys just how much of a wuss you really are." he smirked, even though his comeback was pitiful. But it looked like Percy had nothing by the look on his face. But then I remembered that Percy shows barely any facial expression. Ever. But I myself have become quite the expert at reading these expressions. You begin to notice, it's not what he shows, but what he doesn't show. I totally missed the "epic bash-down" Thalia had just mentioned because I was internally cataloging all of Percy's expressions. She said that he won though. That's my- I mean everyone's boy!

"Come on sissy boy, wanna fight, or are you scared?" Ethan got into basic fighting position and threatened Percy with a hypothetical knife.

"Guys stop i can't let you do this!" I tried to intervene. I didn't want to sound like a cheesy movie, but I seriously could not let them do this. I would get a temporary bystander suspension. We have this rule in our school that it you're watch a fight and you don't try to stop it, you could get suspended too. And if I get suspended the paparazzi will surely find out and my acting career will dip! That's basically the only thing feeding my family! Except for my mother's books. But that's more like a couple million dollars every couple of years. Not the continuous hundreds of thousands I bring in. Percy got into fighting mode and I panicked.

"No Percy, I absolutely forbid you to use violence!" He halted and glared at me for a split second before turning back around to Ethan. I watched him shut his eyes as Ethan fist came in like a rocket. When it finally connected with his jaw Percy fell backward. I turned around to get Mrs. Hestia. I found she has already run out, probably to Mr. Bacchus for more non-photographed kissing. Gross.

"Percy!" Grover proclaimed. Percy just wiped his mouth and glared Ethan's way. Ethan loomed over him with this slimy expression on his face.

"Look at you. Taking orders from a _girl._ You're pathetic." he played it off like some sort of random comeback, but I knew what he was doing. He obviously knew that Percy is stronger, and better than him in every way, including looks, I may add. He was just trying to get under Percy's skin, aggravate him. And it worked. His eyes must have turned a million shades darker and I could practically see the angry aura radiating off of him.

"Why you . . ." he trailed off, so angry he was at a loss for words. He got into fighting position yet again and I just had to stop him.

"Both of you stop fighting, right now! Don't make me expose you Percy, I will." I yelled into the tense air between the boys.

"What?" Percy said. "I thought- before he could finish, Ethan's fist collided with the side of Percy's head, then in the eye, and once again in the stomach. He punched everywhere, and Percy didn't even fight back because of my acting career, because of the stupid photo, because of my selfishness, because of me. It actually hurt to watch, was this really worth it? Percy's well-being was worth more than my acting, right?

"Stop fighting! You guys don't want to do this, believe me it's not worth it!" I tried again, but no one but Percy was listening, and he was getting his butt handed to him.

"Do you hear me?" I questioned before Percy flew into me and we tumbled back together.

"What a pushover," Ethan insulted Percy and laughed. The other guys followed. Except for Jason and Frank. I don't think they found it funny. Pollux and Castor didn't laugh either. They sat in the corner of the room, separated from everyone, doing homework.

"Wow, you know, you could have tried to dodge a least _one_ of those punches," I got it. If Percy dodges the punches, no one gets hurt, and my acting career stays intact.

"Actually, I was trying." Percy shattered my plan with a tap on the glass. "I never was really good with defense, though."

"So you've done this sort of thing before?" That was what really scared me the most. I didn't want Percy to be brute. I don't know why, I just didn't. Then I realized I was sitting in Percy's lap and his arms were hooked at around my waist. I didn't even notice we were so close and our noses were almost touching. I blushed because not even Malcolm and , who were _dating_ got this close. And here I was in the lap of my enemy! That's basically cheating! I got up abruptly and straightened out my skirt. Just in time to see Ethan bragging to his new goons.

"See he really is a wuss! And you see the way he lets that stupid girl push him around? What a joke!" The boys erupted into laughter and Ethan stood there, probably feeling like some kind of weird monkey king. I looked at Percy sternly, and he stared right back. For a moment I got lost in his eyes. Then I returned because how deep can you travel into that murky mess?

"Hey. You've got one shot. One shot. Fight!" I cried and Percy turned around with a devilish smirk. Well, he didn't really smirk but remember, it's what he doesn't show.

"So that settles it. I'm the new boss now. You with me?" Ethan asked and I heard the boys jumbled sounds of agreement.

"Hey," Percy greeted Ethan.

"Oh hi!" he turned around; he probably thought Percy was out of commission. He was terribly wrong. He turned around to meet Percy's fist right in the stomach. Ethan keeled over, clutching his stomach for dear life and fell to the ground, no signs of life but his breathing.

"Man, he really laid him out, didn't he?" Hazel had been providing commentary the whole fight and it was actually pretty funny.

"Yeah, but it worked, didn't it? Ethan's gang didn't even last one period." Thalia said.

"Yeah but I still think violence is wrong," I crossed my arms like a six year old child.

"Like you have the rights to stay that, Mrs. I'm-Going-To-Hit-You-With-A-Hammer," Thalia snorted.

"But it's in the name of justice!"

"Yeah right."

I watched as Percy muttered something about cleaning his face and slid the door open but the guys crowded around him.

"Hey man, we knew you were still the boss the whole time!" Leo voice wavered and dropped and all the girls snickered, stuck with our high voices forever.

"I told you, I'm done with that kind of stuff," he said, never looking back, and he slid the door closed. With that, Percy Jackson was gone.

And thanks to Percy's "one punch", the rest of the boys stopped acting up. Not to mention totally leaving Ethan out. All the problems in our classroom had been solved! Or at least, that's how it seemed.

~Linebreak~

~A couple weeks later~

"Annabeth, have you seen Percy anywhere?" Grover was sprinted the best he could down the hallways. You see, Grover has Arthrogryposis and it makes his legs kind of weird. It's not a huge difference, just makes him wobble a bit more than run. He grabbed my shoulders firmly and squeezed. Hard.

"No, I haven't. Why? What's up?" I leaned further from him, no more close proximity with boys for today. But he just got closer until my head was against a locker.

"We were supposed to meet here, but he was a total no show!" he stomped off. Grover can be a little bit scary when he's angry, but not as bad as Percy. "Dang! He's all running off! He always leaves me hanging!" Grover yelled before he turned a corner and disappeared from sight. I was kind of worried about him myself. These days Percy's been keeping more and more to himself. Then I realized something.

He's gone from boss monkey to lone wolf!

~Linebreak~

~During PE~

"I really wish you'd just leave that guy alone!" Thalia snapped after I had ranted for half the period about Percy. "So what if he's acting weird lately? Until a couple of weeks ago, you thought he was the devil. Or have you forgotten about that?" she crossed her arms. I glared at her. My best girlfriend was _not_ making things better. She kept going but all it sounded like was "Annabeth wah wah wah wah wah Percy wah wah wah wah wah Annabeth wah Percy wah."

I looked over at Percy who was typing his shoes in the corner while simultaneously flipping his hair. I don't know why, but it just looked so sad and I wanted to go over there and just hug him and smell his beautiful majestic scent and wow that escalated quickly.

"Hello, Earth to Annabeth?" Thalia waved her hand in my face and I snapped out of it and blinked a couple of times. When my eyes finally refocused on her, everyone was looking at me in the gym. Except for Percy who was looking off into space and drooling and mumbling what I made out to be pizza and cheese class. Weird.

"Wake up, it's your turn!" Thalia pushed me onto the white mat. We were doing that thing where they have this pile of stacky-trapezoid-thingies that you stack to make piles and jumping over them, using your arms as a boost.

"Okay, here I go," I took off running, and then I kept running until I slowed down a bit and focused in on Percy again. He was sitting against the fence and looking off into space with this blank expression. But from what he _didn't show_ I could see the hint of sadness in his eyes. He glanced at me and I kept staring. Until I hear Juniper scream my face and all I saw was the stack hurdling towards me and I ran right into it and smacked myself in the face. It hurt _really badly._

And actresses' face is her life, and if it looks as bad as it feels it's going to seriously hurt my career. I glanced at Percy and he just looked away again. That boy, this is all his fault. He's the one that got me all tied up in knots and upset and stuff. I don't know what his problem is, but I'm going to get to the bottom of it.

~Linebreak~

I showed up at the Jacksons' door. Well not at the door, per say. More like hiding in the bushes in another costume I got from the acting troupe. I had a beige trench coat on and some sunglasses. I had been waiting for hour until the light that Grover had notified me to be Percy's room was clicked on. The target had entered his room. Preparing to sneak inside and put the squeeze on the target 'til he's forced to confess.

See, I could totally play the lead in a crime drama or something! Just then I heard a faint humming sound.

Oh no.

My entire body started to shake and I knew that Malcolm had just buzzed me in on the Barucha. I couldn't even control where I was going I ended up right in front of Percy's house at the front door. When I buzzing stopped I sighed in relief.

"Can I help you?" I girl's voice sounded from behind me. I turned around to see a beautiful girl with long, loosely curled, dark red hair and perfect blue eyes. He had to be a little bit older than me, high school, maybe? Her eyes were so pretty, but still not prettier than Percy's. In terms of color, Percy's eye couldn't be beat. Right now, they were really ugly, but say if they were clear, they'd be beautiful. But what really got me was the voice. The same voice that rung out of the house the night I pantsed Percy. It was daytime now, but the voice was so familiar. It was Percy's sister.

Yay, I get to meet his sister!

Wait.

Oh no, it was his sister.

I'm Annabeth Chase, and she's his sister. Which means that, in turn, she's his sister and I'm Annabeth Chase. Which means that I could be found out! What would the paparazzi say? Percy was my new love interest? Never in a million years! Malcolm will forever be mine! I already decided we were going to get married in the same city I found him in. But that's a story for another day, another time.

"Actually I'm on a secret undercover job in hot pursuit of a nutritious character," I looked around and prayed to the acting gods that she was buying it.

"You mean suspicious character. Which is exactly what _you_ look like," she said. Wait, I said nutritious? I think I'm used to acting dumb when I'm in a costume. That's what I always have to do on Child's Toy, so maybe it's some sort of a weird, twisted, reflex. Moreover, she thought I was suspicious. And judging by the things she told Percy that night, she isn't exactly the nicest person. I looked around frantically, praying that Percy would run out of the house and just take me back to my house. Then the sister in question squealed and I knew I was a goner.

"OMG! You're Annabeth! Like Annabeth Chase! Am I right? You're Annabeth from TV! You're on Zach's Child's Toy!" She danced around in place and kept screaming.

"What do you mean? No I'm not." You'd think that she would buy it because I'm an actress, right? But I panicked! I couldn't summon my inner actress.

"Nah. You can fool me. See?" She pulled off my glasses. Wait, she pull off my glasses! Who does that? Isn't there some kind of law that we have the right to wear sunglasses, right? That's why Malcolm never takes off his sunglasses! Except for when he's sleeping. He shows his eyes to me and to me only, his only love interest. But that's beside the point, my cover was blown and if Percy walks out of the house I'm going to be _so_ dead.

"I told you, you can't fool me. I knew it was you! Wow, you're just as pretty as you are on TV!" She kept fangirling and telling me that I couldn't fool her. Then she got a little _too_ personal and started touching me.

"OH my god! Your hair is curly, but it's soft and doesn't tangle! What's your secret?"

"Uh . . . conditioner?" she started frantically rubbing my eyebrows.

"So the rumors are true! You don't draw on your eyebrows! They're naturally dark? How?"

"Genetics?" I backed up but she just got closer and kept inspecting my hair.

"And your hair! It's golden just like they say! Do you dye it? What's your natural hair color?"

See, the thing is, that was one of the things I wasn't proud about. Everyone, everywhere, anybody, they associate blond hair with stupidity, and fakeness. I'm not stupid. I might have ADHD and dyslexia, but I'm still pretty smart. My grades are always up and I only have to ask questions in class a little bit. So when people she blonde hair, and me acting stupid on TV, they think _I'm_ stupid. And I'm not fake. I don't wear makeup. Ever. Unless I'm in a movie playing as some sort of creature or they put on a little makeup over acne and stuff.

"No. My hair is naturally blonde," I stated and I looked at her with no hesitation.

"Oh, sorry." she started pulling at her hair, which was loosely curled, but in such a way where is could get messy and sea swept kind of like Percy's but it still looked amazing. I kind of looked like the wind was pushing her hair back at all times, but on Percy, it looked like the wind was blowing his hair to the side. I liked Percy's style better.

"I wish I was blonde. Being a dinger sucks." she pouted and looked at my hair in total envy.

"What's a dinger?" I asked. I'm not very familiar with words I don't know. It must be slang.

"Me. A dark ginger." She gestured to the lock she was holding in between her fingers. I just nodded and added that word the dictionary of my mind.

"Being blonde is isn't really a piece of cake either," I muttered.

"What? How so? I always thought I'd be really cool," she knitted her eyebrows and it looked really cute on her and she was so pretty!

"It'd take a long time to explain," I waved her off but she persevered.

"No, tell me. I'm a really good listener." I started my rant about the downfalls of blondness. It ranged from health defects to stereotypes and somewhere in between I realized that this girl was a _really_ bad listener.

In the beginning she would concentrate and look at you and give small, spaced out nods and you really appreciate it. Then she would start bouncing her leg and looking around. And by the end she started whistling a tune to herself and moving onto her heels and then her toes and back again. I rolled my eyes.

"But seriously, it suits you. You're so pretty and, wow I get to meet Annabeth Chase!" she squealed again and I swear to the gods that my eyes were ringing the rest of the day.

"Gee. . . thanks. But I really must be go-" I heard a banging sound.

"What are you doing?" I turned around to see Percy in the doorway. But the thing is, he wasn't just "in the doorway"

He was in his boxers and completely, utterly, totally, _shirtless_ in the doorway. I snapped my eyes shut and responded the best I could.

"Uhhh . . ." I said intelligently. But before I could have the chance to redeem myself, his sister spoke up.

"Don't be stupid! What would an important girl like Annabeth want to do with _you_?" I looked between frantically and just hoped it wouldn't be bad. I think I'd had my dose of violence for the next three years after the whole "Ethan Incident". Percy just looked at her, all straight faced. Well, you know how I told you I could read his "facial expressions"? Well this is what scared me.

He was showing nothing.

His face held no emotion. No sadness, compassion, not even anger. He must be so used to this, so used to this living nightmare that he's immune. That's sick.

"If fact, what are you even doing here? I told you not to step foot in this house until I've gone to bed! Just looking at you makes me sick!" My breath hitched and Percy just stood there. His sister grabbed my shoulders and looked at me.

"Hey, do you think you can get me Zach's autograph? He face broke out into this huge, cute, lopsided grin that I just couldn't say no to.

"Well, that may be a little hard. . ." I trailed off and my eyes landed on the door which no longer held Percy, who had disappeared from sight. And a couple seconds he reappeared, fully dressed in a t shirt and cargo shorts.

"Why are you still standing there? I said I don't want to see you!" Percy's sister screamed at Percy who was slipping on some shoes.

"Oh, I know! Annabeth, why don't you join us for dinner? I'd be an honor, I could whip up something special," The sister kept smiling. That is, until Percy brushed past us, keeping his eyes on the ground in front of his and his hands jammed into his pockets.

"And I'm not making anything for you, so don't get your hopes up! You just get out of here!" she seethed and Percy just kept walking down the middle of the road.

"I'm going. Shut up."

"What do you say, Annabeth? Please stay." she turned her attention back to me, and I glanced at the sky behind her and saw the sun retreating toward the horizon, bathing the sky in yellows, reds, and oranges. It was actually quite beautiful.

"Sorry, I'm late for work. Gotta run! I'll see you, okay?" I ran down the street in the same direction Percy had gone. My coattails flew behind me in the wind and I disappeared into the night.

"Bye! Don't forget my autograph!" I looked back to catch the last images of light coming from the inside of the house as she shut the door behind her. After following his messy-haired shadow for a while I finally spotted him at the railroad tracks. The bar rolled down and the train came passing by. I tried to call out to him. but he couldn't hear over the train. He waited until it was done and the bar rose before walking over the track, and into the urban part of the town.

He was really leaving. He was going to have dinner all alone.

~Linebreak~

I punched in words on the personality profile thingy I won on Child's Toy a while back.

"I knew it," I whispered to myself, but Malcolm, who was sitting next to me drank coffee.

"You knew what?" he asked.

"About Percy. He really is a lone wolf, at home and at school." I flopped back on the loveseat and stared up at the grey ceiling.

"I mean, it just isn't fair. I have a lot of people I can talk to. My friends, Mama, Malcolm. Maybe Percy doesn't have anyone like that. Or, maybe he doesn't think he needs them. When I think of how alone he must feel, it's hard to stay angry at him. Instead I just sort of feel bad for him, you know?" Mama sat down next to me and pulled her arm around my shoulder.

"You're really become the fine young woman I've always wanted you to be, Annabeth," she smiled and I instantly felt better. It was the perfect family scene, but not the perfect family. All I had was an adoptive mother, a boyfriend, and a maid and yet, it was all so much more than Percy had. It wasn't the perfect family, but I thought it was perfect. The same didn't go for Percy, with made me sad. I want to be there for him, you know? It's like this unconditional love. Kind of like a mother, but in friendship version. His gloomy nature draws me to him, I want to fix him, make things right. If only he would let me in.

"Sorry to interrupt ma'am, but your editor is here," Thelma, our maid peeked her head in his a duster in her hand.

"Susan! I have to have your manuscript!" he said firmly. I see. He was going for the authoritative approach.

What a terrible idea.

"Quck! Tell me; what is your favorite drink and Kung Fu move?" Mama was holding up my personality profile/

"Um, Gatorade and reverse chokehold." he peeked over Mana's shoulder as she punched that into the personality profile. She grimaced.

"I see."

"What? What does it tell you?" the editor cried.

"It says that you're the type who shouts 'I have to have your manuscript' even though deep in your heart you're actually willing to wait," she lied.

"I am?" I think he actually fell for it. I held in snickers and watched Mama's plan unfold.

"Yes. The Personality Assessment Notebook never lies, my friend." she held up the notebook and gave a straight, serious face.

"Wait, but isn't that just a toy?" a huge smile poked at Mama's face.

"No. Gotta go!" she sung and bolted off.

"Wait! I need your manuscript!" he yelled after her.

"Never!" She ran around the living room with her breathless editor following. I ignored the scene, because it happens like, every day. I looked at Malcolm who was still drinking his coffee and enjoying the show.

"Hey Malcolm, do you think you can help me go over my lines for tomorrow?" I held up my script for tomorrow's Child's Toy. I wonder what the point was. We always stray off the script anyways, but I guess the producer just liked it this way.

"Sure," Mama kept running around till she stopped abruptly, causing the editor to crash into her and fall to the floor.

"Oops, silly me! I forgot to tell you I finished it this morning." She laughed loudly, while the editor almost cried.

"Why must you do this to me? Why must you torture me so?" I laughed at loud at the editor who gingerly outstretched his arms.

"Oh, no reason. I just needed an after-dinner workout," She pulled out a towel from her little hair, which was parked next to the wall nearby, and wiped off her forehead, where she had built up a thin sheen I sweat. The editor reached for the bag, with Mama held farther away and told him the beg for it or she'll burn it. The editor did the kneeling-worshippy-thing. Eventually, the editor walked out, looking at the manuscript, incredulously happy.

I sat on my window sill seat alone later that night, my curls tumbling down my back, with my electric piano spouting out a sad, slow, yet electric tune. I began to sing.

"I live in such a happy home

So I never thought there could be

A family that goes a night living in the same home

But never actually loves one another . . ."

It didn't rhyme, and it was too sad for me, so I finished the song in a different style. I pulled out my recorder.

"Being a lone wolf just isn't much fun." I spoke into it.

"B-Being a- Being a lone wolf just isn't m-much fun!" I spoke back, but it was broken up and repeated and made it sound more dubstep than anything. I put it on the wrong setting, but just continued my upbeat rap as always.

Being a lone wolf just isn't much fun

It's sad and it's lonely

I think a little lone bear

Or a little lone would be much more fun to be

Yeah!

I was _going_ to finish with an epic ending but I thought of something. I said little lone pig. I imagine Percy in a little big suit oinking and being cute. I burst out it a fit on laughed and slammed my fist and feet on my bed again and again, sometime later one, falling asleep.

~Linebreak~

"Okay, does anyone have any questions? So far?" Mrs. Hestia looked up from the board where she had be writing a rather large math problem.

"Um, Mommy?" Grover raised his hand and all eyes were on him. An eighth grader had just called the teacher mommy. It was actually serious because Percy looked up from the book where he had been clutching his head and giving it an intense stare down. It didn't take long for the whole classroom to burst out in laughter.

"Moron," Ethan commented, but couldn't fully let his sentence out into the air because he clutched his stomach and fell down, still laughing.

"Yeah, the teacher's not your mommy, stupid," Leo squeaked, still waiting for his voice to drop. This caused half the class, mostly girls, to be thrown into another round of laughter, all at Leo's failed attempts to speak without squealing.

"Momma's boy," Ethan called out again from where he had been slumped against a wall, laughing. By now, everyone had crowded around a very embarrassed Grover.

"Yes Grover?" Mrs. Hestia tried to conceal her own chuckles at the front of the room.

"Uh," Grover just blushed deeper when he saw Mrs. Hestia turn around and laugh. I looked at a nearby boy who had slumped against my desk, laughing.

"Stop laughing, it really isn't that funny."

"I know, it's hilarious! Grover is totally a little momma's boy!" he wheezed.

"Hey, has anyone ever seen his mom? She's so funny looking!" Ethan threw oil in the fire. Grover just growled in the corner. That meant bad news. Did I tell you that Grover got crazy scary when he was mad?

At first I thought he was going to punch someone, but he didn't. His eyes glinted behind his glasses, and before the boys could come up with one more rumor about his 'mommy' he had lifted the desk over his head and screamed:

"SHUT UP!" The girls huddled up into the their little groups they use to go to the bathroom and screamed, while boys all crowded around Percy, who just watched from his desk. Grover threw the desk into the crowd and everybody fled. Mrs., Hestia just didn't really know what to do so she stood there like a noodle in the front of the room. Grover ran around the room, picking up random desks and throwing them while we all cowered to the perimeter of the room. Except for Percy's who desk was already in the back corner.

I sat on top of Percy's desk and whispered to him, "Hey, what's the deal Why is Grover acting so scary?"

"This again." he groaned but slumped into his desk and stared at the ceiling.

"How can you be acting so calm about it?" I was actually shocked. Like it looked like the apocalypse in my classroom.

"It'll blow over eventually, he does this about once every year," he provided commentary on the scene. "He calls the teacher 'mommy', gets teased, and then snaps."

I looked over at Mrs. Hestia who tried to calm him down. "Grover, it's uh- It's mommy! Mommy's here!" But Grover just threw the desk at her and she fled.

"Once he snaps, everyone knows he's even more frightening than I am, where have you been?" Percy said. I just looked at him. He knew he was scary? I thought you weren't supposed to notice it? Does that mean I could be scary?

. . .

No, can't be.

"Oh, well I guess we've just never been in the same class before," I said deftly. Juniper, who had been standing next to me, commented:

"You must have been out that day." she looked at Percy. "Can't you do something? I mean, isn't it pretty much your job to stop him when he's like that?"

"Yeah, but I'm actually pretty comfortable in this de-"

"Got get him. Now." I growled, and my eyes down darkened and crackled with electricity. He left, and Juniper stared at me, dumbfounded. Was I just scary?

. . .

No, can't be.

Percy karate chopped him on the head, and Grover fell, unconscious.

"So is he calmed down?" Mrs. Hestia, who had recovered from running away from that desk Grover had sent flying her way, asked.

"Yup," Percy hoisted him over his left shoulder. "I'll take him to the nurse."

"Good idea."

"Man, talk about a freak," Ethan whispered.

"No kidding, I guess he really is a big mama's boy," Leo snickered. Percy paused at the door, which meant bad news. He threw a desk and the gossiping boys. I ran to his side, to try to calm him down.

"Percy," I said quietly, but he didn't let up.

"And what's so wrong about loving your own mother, huh?" he said. The boys peeked out from the behind the desk.

"Nothing, I guess," It was Ethan's turn to squeak.

"But, take it too far and-" Leo started.

"And what?" Percy questioned intimidatingly.

"Nothing." Percy slammed the door shut, leaving us in silence.

Mrs. Hestia plopped down in a desk that wasn't already tipped over.

"This is _never_ going to be a normal class, is it?" She sighed.

"Hang in the, teach." Thalia sympathized.

"Don't give up yet," Juniper said.

"Oh, thank you girls," Mrs. Hestia smiled for the first time in weeks. Months, maybe. I thought it was cute, not to mention sweet, that Percy cared so much about his mother.

~Linebreak~

I watched through a crack in the door, the exchange between Percy and Grover in the nurse's office.

"How are you feeling?" Percy asked Grover, who was lying in one of the beds.

"Huh? Oh hi Percy," he said quietly.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to chop you so hard. I guess I don't know how to control it well," he made air-chops in the air.

"No, thanks for helping me out again, sorry I do this every year."

"Sure."

So, Percy can be nice when he wants to be. That good enough for a few points in my book. After all, there's nothing wrong with loving your own mother. I know I do. Actually, I don't think I remember ever seeing Percy's mother in his house. But then again, I don't have a father in mine.

There's a whole lot more to his story, I just know it.

 **So this chapter clocked in at:**

 **Pages: 27**

 **Words: 10000**

 **Characters (no spaces): 43074**

 **Characters (with spaces): 53024**

 **That was pretty cool exactly ten thousand words.**

 **So I think I did okay on this chapter, I guess. I pretty much doubled the length of last chapter. And you meet Percy's sister, though you don't know her name yet! And you figure out just a little bit more about Percy. They're growing closer, Annabeth and Percy, so that's going great.**

 **It was kind of a stoic chapter, so I tried to put in a little comedic relief here and there, I hope it was enough. It's just that this was a really important chapter and I didn't really have time for laughter. Sorry.**

 **And I apologize for any typos I guess I didn't catch them.**

 **So did you like? If so, please review!**

 **Follow your dreams!**

 **BaiBai!**

 **-Charlotte**


	5. Mr Dark-and-Gloomy

**Hey people!**

 **So I'm feeling pretty artsy right now so here I am, ready to write a chapter! By the way, I'm really sorry about not writing. I'm trying to balance out my stories more. I hope you guys can just bear with me for a while.**

 **Sorry for waiting so long, btw.**

 **So reveiws:**

 **Ddcs said: Good!**

 **I say: Thank you!**

 **Ddcs said: More mo re more me cry!?**

 **I say: Thank you?**

 **Nico Di Awesome said:**

 **I really liked it! One thing though, Could you do more chapters in Percy's P.O.V? Keep up the great work!**

 **I say:**

 **Thanks! So here's the deal about this, Percy's PoV is hard to write because I'm not a gloomy person in general, so the quality decreases 100%. Once Annabeth fixes him up in full, I'll write more about him. I already have a couple of things planned for him, so don't worry, it'll go smoothly soon enough. Bear with me, please? There will be a little bit in his PoV today so no need to fear!**

 **Reviewer said:**

 **This is the worst piece of literature that I have had the misfortune to read, the lack of any writing skills above the skill of a toddler makes me want to kill myself!**

 **I say:**

 **May be, but I don't really care what you think, now do I? And oh yeah, that comma is supposed to be a semi colon.**

 **Guest said:**

 **Brilliant! Percy's sister is annoying. Grover goes on rampage. Annabeth is a horrible singer.**

 **I say:**

 **Haha. All of that is pretty true. Thanks for reviewing. Do hurt Anie's feelings. XD**

 **So that concludes the A/N for today.**

 **Thanks for reviewing! :D**

 **And without further adieu, the chapter!**

 **Intro:**

I'm Annabeth Chase, age 13. I'm in eighth grade and a member of the Komowari Acting Troupe.

Malcolm. My manager, chauffeur, and boyfriend.

Mama. Award winning novelist and chipmunk lover.

Miko. Mama's not-so-famous chipmunk.

And the boy who's ruining my chances for a decent education. Percy Jackson. His little monkey gang was out of control, so I decided to put a stop to it, once and for all. And I won, but then I lost, then I won, then I lost, but in the end, I totally caught Percy with his pants down. I won!

 _ **Previously on Child's Toy:**_

 _So, Percy can be nice when he wants to be. That good enough for a few points in my book. After all, there's nothing wrong with loving your own mother. I know I do. Actually, I don't think I remember ever seeing Percy's mother in his house. But then again, I don't have a father in mine._

 _There's a whole lot more to his story, I just know it._

 **Chapter 5: Mr. Dark and Gloomy**

 **Annabeth's PoV (Sorry Nico Di Awesome)**

"Bye Malcolm! Love you!" I hopped out of the car and sped up the stairs to Half Blood Academy. I was late again. Why was I always late every morning? I heard the bell ring and I knew I was a goner. This was the third time in a row. With Mrs. Hestia's new teaching skills, I was probably going to get a detention.

"Wait a second! Hold that bell!" I yelled to no one in particular. I managed before the second bell but after The Pledge of Allegiance. Mrs. Hestia waltzed in and everyone took their seats.

"Good morning class," she started hesitantly. I don't think she's ever came to school with a quiet class like this. When she saw that we weren't going to attack her or something, she continued. "How are you today?"

"Fine, thank you. How are you Mrs. Hestia?" everyone chorused just liked I forced them to practice in the music room after school yesterday. Hestia smiled like a maniac.

"I'm doing great." everyone just waited there in silence while she kept smiling to herself. I cleared my throat quietly, but just loud enough to snap her out of it.

"Alright then let's get started. I'd like you to take out your literature books and open to page 271,"

She turned around cautiously, afraid of some sort of surprise attack or something, and started writing something about diagramming sentences on the board. I opened mine and got really lucky because I flipped it opened and it landed right on page 271. I smiled to myself and how the room quieted down after everyone had successfully reached page 271. It was nice and quiet. But for some odd reason, I didn't like it. I glanced at Percy, who was squinted at the pages and back up at the board again and again.

 **~Linebreak~**

"Hey have any of you guys seen that teacher over at B1 yet? She's so ugly!"

Ethan stood at the front of the room in attempt to contact everyone in the room at once. The boys whispered among themselves, some giving disinterested shakes of heads, some (especially Leo) nodding their heads violently. Nico ended up turning around.

"How ugly?" he asked.

"Totally."

The guys rushed towards the door, their voices mixed together and formed this loud noise that totally broke all the quiet rules we established this morning. Mrs. Hestia had stepped out of a minute to have a short "meeting" with Mr. Bacchus and we took it as a little break where we grouped together and talked about stuff.

"Follow me!"

Ethan swiveled around to find Percy in the doorway, who just came back from the principal's office I'm guessing for what he did over the 'Mama's boy' thing. One by one, the other guys following him crashed into his back from the abrupt stop. "Hey, what's up Percy? You want to come with us?" he asked.

"No, I'll pass," he brushed past them and headed back toward his usual spot in the back. Grover took the chance to slip into the line of boys following Ethan.

"I think I'll come too."

Ugh, boys." Thalia huffed from next to me. "Talk about immature. I don't care how ugly that poor teacher is, she's not half as ugly as they are."

"Isn't Jason like, your twin or something?" I asked. I mean, she's lucky she has a sibling. She shouldn't call him ugly.

"Yeah, I don't mean him," she sighed.

"And don't you like Nico or something?" Juniper added, Thalia flushed.

"N-No. Well, I used to. But that's a thing in the past!" She put her head down on the desk and covered her ears.

"Suit yourself," Juniper said.

"Well he's better than Percy," I muttered.

"What? I thought you liked him," Thalia wondered.

"No I don't. What gives you that I idea?" I asked.

"I don't know. Why do you want to fix him so bad? And you're always spending time with him." Juniper asked. "I mean, a troublemaker is a troublemaker, right?"

"I don't know. I just- I just want to fix him. I think that maybe, he's like this because he's just waiting for that "okay" from someone to live a normal life. You know what I mean?"

"Nope," Juniper said.

"Not a clue," Thalia agreed.

"But I'm sort of impressed that Percy didn't want to go with the others to see that teacher. He's not like the other boys. He's more grown up. It's kind of cool, don't you think Annabeth?" Juniper gossiped and giggled.

"Huh?" I said.

I mean these girls were starting to grow on Percy. I mean, I always thought that at first he was a boss monkey, but now he's a lone wolf. And he did all those terrible things to Piper. But I guess those silent guys in the TV shows actually do have that effect on girls. Wow.

"Yeah, that's right. Maybe we have him figured all wrong. I'm starting to think that maybe he's not such a bad guy after all," Thalia pondered. I thought of the sarcastic, reckless, rebel Thalia dating the quiet, troublemaking, annoying Percy. They actually might have made a good couple.

"Okay, then."

I smirked and made my way to the back of the room where Percy was sitting. He had some kind of music blasting in his ears, and was reading a comic about dinosaurs. I yanked his earphones out and slid his book off the table.

"Hey listen, play your cards right, and I think you might have a couple of admirers over there," He made no impression and just stared at me. Eventually, he shrugged and picked his book back up. Before he could find his page again, Grover walked in.

"She sure is ugly alright," he laughed a little. "You really should go check it out, Percy."

"I'm not interested," he finally found his page.

"Yeah, he's _definitely_ more mature," Thalia whispered to Juniper, I watched their exchange for a while.

"And I never noticed before, but he's kind of cute," Juniper smiled and Percy who didn't even glanced her way. If only he dropped that lone wolf act for just a second, he'd get a girlfriend. I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable with that though. I don't really know why. Maybe it'd show that instead of bringing him out of his little shell, I gave him a complete personality change.

"Come on, make your move," I whispered to Percy. Despite my thoughts, I let him go for it. I mean, it couldn't hurt, right? He got up and I knew that I'd hit the jackpot. He made his way over to their table but didn't quite stop next to them. Instead, he walked right past them. Was he going to see that teacher? Maybe he really was just a boss monkey deep down inside.

"Are you going to check out that teacher, Percy?" Juniper asked as he brushed past them.

"No. I said I'm not interested. And plus, I already see enough ugly faces looking at you two," he scoffed and walked out of the classroom to who knows where.

"Wrong move!" I hollered after him, but he ignored me like I didn't exist and just continued on his way to wherever. I took my seat back where Thalia and Juniper were sitting.

"What a jerk. Percy is a total dork," Thalia hissed.

"Yeah, he's the worst," Juniper agreed. What is that boy's problem? I'm beginning to think that naked picture worked a little too well.

I excused myself from the group and ran after Percy. I found him halfway down the hall and broke out into a sprint to catch up with him.

Along the way I saw that ugly teacher the guys were talking about and almost hurled when I saw her huge nose and wart covered face.

The worst thing about her was that she had to be in her mid-fifties and was still wearing ponytails with her short, sparse, bleached blonde hair. She was really fat and had huge thick glasses, and a dress that barely covered her butt. Her mouth was formed into a permanent scowl and her eyebrows were badly done. The real question is, how did she even get hired here?

I realized that I had almost ran past Percy and screeched to a halt in front of him.

"Hey Percy!" I patted his shoulder in hope that he took it as a friendly gesture.

"What's your problem?" he asked harshly. Obviously, he didn't take it as a friendly gesture. I assumed he meant the way I almost tripped when trying to stop running abruptly.

"Hey, when you're moving that fast, it's kind of hard to stop. You know, it could have happened to anybody," I poked him in the chest to point out that it could happen to him, and he stepped back a little. Then thought about how he was shirtless in front of his house the other day when I met his sister and I hastily pulled back. I really hoped that this whole "thing" wouldn't make things awkward.

"What? What do you want now?" I could tell that he just wanted to be wherever he was going and my meddling was just getting him mad. On the other hand, he didn't blush or tell me to stop or threaten me or pull a gun on me or anything when I touched him, so I guess he thought it was fine. I mean, if the victim doesn't press charges in court, it's just kind of a roll-off-the-back kind of thing. You know?

"Look, I know you're scared of being 'exposed'" I smiled to myself at how I skillfully single-handedly obtained total control over the world's biggest boss monkey. I patted his shoulder reassuringly, which he shrugged off. "but don't worry I promise, I won't show the picture to anybody as long as you don't make trouble for the teacher and get your monkey boys all riled up again." He showed no expression of gratefulness, but made no move to tell me he didn't care, so I guess that he was relieved.

"But in the meantime, don't be afraid to talk to anyone in class or anything. I want you to hang out, enjoy yourself. You know, live a little-" I was so obsessed with my little speech to Percy was I didn't even notice him turning into the room we stopped next to. I caught him when his hand touched the door.

"Hey, I'm still talking here!" I called after him. He stopped just before pushing the door open and clicked his tongue in annoyance, before giving out a small chuckle.

"Then why don't you come with me?" I gasped. Percy _never_ ever is honest when it comes to me. He's always like "I wouldn't hate it you came with me" or whatever. So the fact that he actually said "come with me" is actually astonishing. This moment calls for a supportive young lady like _moi._

"I would love to! Where are we going?" I glanced around in anticipation. it must be really fun if he was all honest and nice about it. Until he actually showed me. He slipped open the door to the boy's bathroom and I glanced at something that I _really_ didn't want to see.

"Oh, I really walked right into that one, didn't I?" I sighed.

"Yup, and come to think of it, you're going to walk into it again." He pushed the door open wider so that it was pressed up against the wall, and I think I saw way too many heart-patterned boxers than I need to in a lifetime.

"I'm not your 'friend' Annabeth. You just happen to have something on me that I really don't want out." With that, the door shut, leaving me really feeling like a stupid blonde.

"You're stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" I screamed at the door, leaving others to mutter weird things about me as they walked by.

 **~Linebreak~**

As I was casually hiding in the bushes outside of the school yard, which just happened to be the exact path Percy goes home on, coincidently seconds before Percy actually came out. I noticed that some random kid named Grover Oakland (A/N: I'll explain on the last name later, okay?) completely and totally randomly kicked a guy who happened to be playing soccer in the butt so that his ball flew over the bush I was in, which just happened to sprout arms and catch it and rolled it over to the green-eyed boy's feet.

Like I said, total coincidence.

So anyways, after that completely random series of events, Percy stopped the ball at his feet, before looking over the like 'Why is this here I've already been having a problem with annoying people'

"Hey Percy!" What sounded like Jason yelled. "That was a pretty nice stop! We could use one more to even up the teams, do you wanna play?" Instead of the ideal 'Okay!' I wanted, he winded his foot back and kicked it into Frank's stomach and kept on walking. At that point, I'd had enough. I stood up from the bush I happened to be chilling in a started scolding.

"Hey! I saw that!" I hollered. He just glanced at me and continued on his way.

"Oh sure, just walk away again. It's not gonna work this time mister. Hey Percy, I'm talking to you, you can't ignore me!"

"What do you think I'm doing right now?"

"Why don't you go play soccer with the other boys? Wouldn't that be fun, huh?" I suddenly snapped at his defiance and stood my ground in front of him. "Just do it!" He sighed.

"What the heck are you trying to prove here?"

"Like I said, you need to stop moping around so much. Try to make some friends. C'mon it's easy!" I grabbed his hand and whipped us both around and waved at the guys playing soccer in the school yard.

"Hey guys, Percy wants to play with you! Is there still any space?" I yelled around the some 100 yards between us.

"Um, sorry but we're not playing with that dummy." Leo squealed.

"Why would you say that? Sure, he's kind of an idiot, but I wouldn't call him a dummy." Until I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Percy was not, in fact, there.

"Oh you mean this dummy." I inwardly cried at the sandbag dummy in my arms.

 **~Linebreak~**

"Hey there!" I said cheerily to Percy bumped into him coincidently after randomly forcing his schedule out of Grover.

"Why are you following me? Don't you have something better to do? Like practicing your Komo-whatever?"

"It's 'Komowari', and it only meets on weekends. Besides, what I do is not the issue here. Rather it's what you're doing." my cheerful facade shattered right there and then and I finally let Percy into what was going on in my heart. That I was really worried about his well-being. "Ever since you stopped being boss monkey, you've been pulling this whole loner act. It's starting to get kind of weird.." I trailed off.

For a second he paused, and for a second I thought that finally, Id cracked him, that finally, I'd gotten through to him.

But I was wrong.

"And what does that have to do with you? Nothing." he answered his own question and walked away.

"You should really talk about it if something is bothering you." I called after him weakly.

"So what? You think you're gonna be my counselor now? No chance in hell." Now that was what sent me over the edge. I guess we really did seem like that story about the mongoose and the cobra. Except, I was the mongoose.

"Are you _trying_ to make me mad?" My breathing sped up and got heavier, my eyes darkened, my feet suddenly became rooted to the ground, and my fingernails dug into my clenched palms.

"I don't know, I could ask you the same question. He shrugged and played calm, which only made the situation worse. I was about to literally four-arm body slam him before I thought: I have to stay calm, I absolutely couldn't let him get to me.

"Look, can you stop being pig-headed for one second? Just listen." I sighed and kept my cool.

"Do I even have a choice?" He asked no one in particular.

"You know I really make a point to enjoy my life."

"I see that."

"Every year I try new things, I make new friends, and my life just keeps getting better! I get so excited when I think about all the exciting possibilities the future may bring. Doesn't that make you excited to?" Just from that pep talk, I got myself feeling cheerful and happy-go-lucky. There is no chance that he could ever resist this one. Until he did.

"Nope, not at all."

"Why do you have to make everything so difficult?" i stomped my foot in frustration. "It makes me sad to see you moping around acting like Mr. Dark and Gloomy all the time. I just want to turn on a light or something, you know? I mean let's fix the problem so you can be happy, I'm just trying to help you."

"Help me?"

"Yeah! I want you to enjoy life, make new friends, smile for a change! And I know I can help you, I'll do anything I can, just ask! Really, anything! Let's put the past behind us and start over. How does that sound?" I wondered if I could actually be friends with Percy. He couldn't be that bad, right?

"Anything?" he said, and that's where things took a turn for the worst.

"Mhm?" I hummed cautiously. The way he said that 'anything' was actually kind of creepy.

"Okay. Then kill me." he said bluntly. My heart skipped a couple beats. Did he just say kill?

"K-k-kill? But- you- what? What's wrong with you?" I ran my hands through hair. "Are you crazy? Why would you even say something like that? Th-that's totally stupid!" I sighed and we were thrown into a silence. And I'm just gonna tell you, it wasn't comfortable.

"So you'll do it?" he questioned.

"Oh sure, of course I'll kill you," I said sarcastically. But I don't think he got it, because he quirked his eyebrow. "No, I won't! Do you even have to ask?"

"So I guess you were lying when you said 'anything'." Okay, so technically, that's true. But seriously. If your grandma asked you to set her house on fire, would you do it? No!

If your grandpa asked you to help him stuff himself in an oven, would you do it? No! Even if you made a promise to help him with anything, you wouldn't!

You don't want your grandpa to be grandpa stew, you don't want your grandma to be a pile of ashes, unless she died of natural causes and wanted to be cremated. Even in that case, it's s still incredibly sad!

But then Percy had the _audacity_ to go ahead and say it like that. I'm just a thirteen year old! I can barely watch horror movie without 'going to the bathroom', but actually running to my room and _never_ leaving!

"Okay. That's it. If you want to kill yourself, go right ahead. I won't even try to stop you. Just go choke yourself on a piece of tofu or something." Until he started fishing in his pocket and pulled out a knife. He kept a straight face, and that knife looked pretty real, so I thought he was actually going to do it. Until he held it out to me.

"Here, do it."

"Is that-" I snatched it away from him. "What are you doing with this? Don't you know these are dangerous?"

This whole time my breathing was heavy and fast. But suddenly, I couldn't even feel it at all. All I could really feel was the knife in my hand and pounding of my heart in my head.

"Yeah, that's kinda the whole point. Haven't you ever wanted to die before?" he shrugged.

"Um, no!"

"I didn't think so. You really just don't get it at all do you? There's no point in even talking to you. You think you've got it all figured out. You just gab, gab, gab, like your gonna save the whole damn world or something. It pisses me off."

I think this is the first time I've ever picked up and emotion from Percy's voice. And I didn't want it to go like this. I wanted it to be happiness, not anger. And when he picked up again, it was even worse.

"Go on, live your happy little life if that's what you want. Mind your own business. Stop trying to help me, you'll _never_ understand how I feel."

That was the point where I winded back my arm and struck. But instead of hitting his head, I just missed it hit the tree he was standing in front of. I didn't miss, though. I wanted to hit there. The problem was. . .

He didn't even flinch when it came at him.

I let my hand slip off the handle, and it just hang there in the tree for a second.

"Your right. I _don't_ understand you." I backed away one step.

"But I'm the only one who wanted to try. That why I came here. To talk." I backed away from him a couple more steps.

"But you. . . You'd rather die." I let the tears roll down my cheeks.

"I've had it!" I whirled around and sprinted away.

 **~Linebreak~**

"I'm home!" I called before buzzing Malcolm in on the Barucha and flopping on his bed, and buried my face in his pillows. I heard the door open and weight on one side of the bed.

"Percy is a total loser! I can't stand it!" I cried into the pillows. And it actually felt really good. To cry for once, I mean.

I felt a hand on my head and immediately sat up to cry into Malcolm's suit and tie instead.

"Did you spill your coffee?" I recalled that when I came home, he was drinking something and the house smelled like coffee.

"Yeah, a little bit."

 **~Linebreak~**

Mama was so surprised when she walked in the kitchen and found me there; I think her children will be born with big eyes and arched eyebrows.

So she freaked.

"Oh, good morning mama!" I smiled at her before turning around back to what I was working on.

"Annabeth. What wrong are you okay is the house of fire is the world coming to an end what has happened to my child?" Apart from the whole 'disregarding punctuation' thing, I had never seen Mama like this.

"Wow, mama, I've never seen you like this." she ignored everything I said and continued her mom checkup. This time, actually acting like an adult while doing it.

"But seriously, is everything alright Annabeth? Are you feeling ill, perhaps?" she had already made a rush to the medicine cabinet where she pulled out a huge box labeled 'Annabeth'. Why that was there? Don't ask me.

"No, I- I just woke up early," I said.

"I knew it, something is definitely wrong." She literally dived into the box and fished for medicine. By the way, how did she think she was she going to find medicine without knowing the symptoms?

The door opened and Malcolm appeared in the threshold.

"Good morning, Susan. Good morning, Annabeth." he said.

"Malcolm! Good morning!" I climbed up his body and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"Hey," he said, before I covered his mouth with my hand.

"About last night, let's just forget it ever happened."

"Okay, so does that mean you're feeling better?" he asked.

"You bet I am! I'm totally happy monkey lucky!" I paused and put a hand on his chest. "And Malcolm? You don't have to worry about Percy, he's no threat to you, got it?"

"Sure." he brushed past me and sat at the dining table.

"I don't understand please tell me this isn't walk it sounds like." Mamas said breathlessly after fishing around in my medicine box. Then she snapped back into her mature adult state just after quick as she got out of it. Moving right along then, why are you wearing that apron?"

"I wanted to show you both how much I love you so I made us all breakfast!" They gasped, probably from happiness.

"She didn't. . ." Mama said.

"I hope you're hungry!" I unveiled three empty bowls on the kitchen counter.

"OH know it's worse than I thought," Mama said.

"Behold, the great American breakfast! Corn flakes! A complete balanced meal in a box. You just gotta pour it into the bowl and stir! And a little milk and voila! You're ready to eat."

I put some of the corn flake mush everyone's plates and sat down to eat mine.

"Look delicious Annabeth. . ." Malcolm said.

"Great! Have some more!" I glopped another spoon on his plate and he gulped. I left for school, leaving them to finish their delicious breakfast.

 **~Linebreak~**

I stole a glance at Percy, who was not, in fact, dead.

 _No Percy is not my problem anymore._ I thought

 **~Linebreak~**

When I was spying on Percy by total coincidence in hall, I noticed that he stopped and looked at the window. That's not good.

What is he loses it and just jumps out and kills himself? I could never live with myself.

So I bolting out of my hiding spo- I mean, from where I just happened to be standing, and stopped right in front of him and spread out my arms. He just looked at me and walked away. That was a close one.

 **~Linbreak~**

When I randomly found Percy using the outside fountains from the bushes, which I just happened to be sitting in, I found something terrible.

Percy was using a bucket.

What if he just flipped and dunked his head in the water, almost drowning himself, and smashed the bucket on the floor over and over and over again till he died?

"Stop! It's not worth it!" I yelled before tackling the bucket.

 **~Linebreak~**

I decided that after that long hard day of saving lives, I should treat myself. So I decided to walk to Starbucks with Juniper and Thalia.

"Hey Annabeth, I noticed you've been acting a little weird lately." Thalia commented.

"Yeah, are you okay?" Juniper asked.

"No, I'm just peachy. What do you ask?"

"I don't know. You just seem a little out of it. You know?" Juniper said.

"No, really. I'm fine." And I was until we got to the intersection between the neighborhoods and the city. Where no other than Percy freaking Jackson was standing. By the way that's his middle name now, 'freaking' and all.

Wait. I was so surprised that I didn't realize the actual danger of this whole situation. What if he ran into the street and got hit a bunch of times?

"Wait!" I screamed before running up and grabbing his sweatshirt.

"Wait for what?" he said before walking across the street. It turns out that it was actually cleared for walking.

"Annabeth?" Thalia and Juniper caught up with me. I ignored them.

"Wait, Percy!" I called after the green eyed boy.

"What do you want?" I snapped at me.

"Oh, well nothing, I guess." he walked away, leaving me looking like an idiot. That guy. I didn't even get to talk to him.

 **~Linebreak~**

I finally had some time to think while I was in dance class later that day. I mean what was his problem? And why can't I get all those things he said the other day by the tree out of my head?

" _You just gab, gab, gab, like your gonna save the whole damn world or something. It pisses me off."_

I mean, I was just trying to be nice and help him out and he had to go ahead and act like a total jerk.

I kept spinning and stepping while I thought some more.

" _Stop trying to help me, you'll never understand how I feel."_

I did that ballet move where you like do this long jump thingy.

And what would make him snap like that?

I crashed into the wall. Maybe it's just best to pay attention while doing those. Come to think of it. This was his entire fault. Why was he doing this to me?

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Percy's PoV~**

I came home after dark because Misty always gets really catty about me coming home before she's asleep. Except she wasn't sleeping. So I was just about to slip into my bedroom which had a bed, earbuds, and some really loud music to play. Until I heard her.

She was screaming already.

"What do you mean you have to work? But you said you'd come! You have to come; everybody else's parents already went!"

Pause.

"No, it's not alright. That's what I'm telling you! There is no other time, parent-teacher conferences are almost over! Can't you even take a half-day out of your stupid schedule!?"

I heard the sound of the phone slamming back into the receiver and it was silent for a while. I thought she took the other stairs and was already in her room. I walked in to find out that she was still there. She whipped around and glared at me.

Here we go again.

"This is your fault! It's all your fault and I hate you!" She ran upstairs and I was just happy that it wasn't something bigger.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Annabeth's PoV~**

 **~On the set of Child's Toy~**

"So Annabeth, I heard you're gonna be starring in a movie," Zach gossiped.

"I wouldn't say I'm the star exactly, I play the main character's sister."

"Oh tale of two sisters," Zach wondered.

"No, not quite, but if you really want to hear I suppose I can give you a little preview of what it's about," I laughed a little to keep it light.

"Oh, do tell."

"Okay, well here's the story. There's this little sister who lives with her big sister, and what happens is she makes her mom sick and causes the main character lots of problems but she's really a good girl,"

By the end of it, even I was a little bit confused, so I hoped for the best.

"Cool. I don't get it." Zach crosses his arms and furrowed his eyebrows. "Explain it again, please? Who's the main character again and who makes who sick?"

"I just told you! The sister's the main character and I'm the sister's sister who makes the mom sick!"

For a second I thought everyone got it before I hear various mutters about me not making any sense.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that's how it goes. . ." I trailed.

"Well, in that case, I don't think I want to see that. . ." Zach teased. But he didn't understand. If he badmouthed it and it was my fault, I could get fired!

"Wait, there are some really big-name actors! The taping isn't gonna be like it is here on Child's Toy. I'm gonna have to give a really dramatic performance if I don't want to get laughed off the set! I mean, if I mess up in front of all those great actors, I might break a leg or go down in flames or who knows?"

I sat back down in my desk because I didn't think it was such a good idea to make myself so nervous.

Everyone laughed, and Zach provided commentary.

"I think you're putting up a pretty dramatic performance right now," Zach chuckled.

"Thanks, can we hurry up with class so I can practice my lines?" I suddenly came out of the nervous stupor.

"Wait a minute, I'm the teacher. Who's in charge here?"

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~In the car~**

Today was the day I was going to find out what's going on with Percy. Those two times I went to his house were weird.

And that's not just because I saw him shirtless and he's hella toned.

First, his dad didn't care that he was hurt, then his sister screaming at him, and then he eats dinner alone! I don't understand, families are supposed to love. It's like his family in all shattered. But then again, break is coming soon and mine. . .

Nevermind.

So as Malcolm drove me home, I stared and Zach's autograph in anticipation about what I was about to do.

"That's Zach's autograph you've got there, right? Is it a present for someone?" Malcolm made small talk because I knew he wasn't comfy behind the wheel.

"That's right, and I hope it's worth it. It's phase two of my master plan. Oh wait, I don't wanna jinx it." I knocked on some pencil I found on the ground.

"Knock on wood. Anyways, let's hurry." I said.

"What? Where to?"

"We've got a delivery to make!"

 **~Linebreak~**

I saw some headlights outside which belonged to car that was definitely not my dad's old Prius. She actually came. I rushed out of the living room and to the door, but not without stopping and checking if I actually had a shirt on. Last time was pretty. . .

Anyways.

I rushed to the door to find that Annabeth had already let herself in.

"Hey Mr. Dark and Gloomy, how's it going?" she said and I just sort of stared at her.

How did she even know where I lived? Last time Grover led her here. Could she have memorized it? That's creepy, but sort of cute in a way.

"See look, I brought Zach's autograph, I hope that's okay. I mean, your sister asked me to bring it so I guess it would be. Can I come in? Oh wait I am in. So where's your sister?"

"Hold on," I said nervously. I knew that Misty's favorite idol is Annabeth and Annabeth respected her, so that meant whatever she does, she could _not_ see Misty right now.

"See? It's a genuine autograph. And Zach was a really good sport about it too. He even personalized it and everything. But I guess you can't tell from looking at the back."

"Here, I'll give it to her," I said. Maybe if she left now, I wouldn't be in so much trouble.

"Oh no you don't, she asked _me_ to bring it to her and that's what I'm gonna do." she peeked around behind me. "So is she here or not?"

"Hey, stop. Listen you need to go. _Now._ I lightly pushed back, but she stood there like her feet were rooted to the ground. Then she did what I never thought she would do. She hugged me. Well, it was more like bringing me in to pat my back.

"Don't worry. Just leave the autograph-giving to the professionals. I'm on TV so-" I dropped to the floor to escape, but I still could get that delicious smell of vanilla and lemons out of my head.

"Alright, well I better go-"

"Wait." I grabbed her shoulder and then I heard the sound of glass breaking and I knew exactly what was happening. I stood up and put my hands on her shoulders.

"Stay right there, don't move." I ran towards the kitchen, where I saw Misty breaking every plate of vase or any glass that she saw.

"Idiot!" she screamed as another plate came crashing to the ground.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I yelled at her and she stopped, only to yell at me.

"It's burnt! You were _supposed_ to watch the stove! Everything's ruined!" she screamed and tears rolled down her cheeks.

I really didn't understand why she was making a big deal about it. I mean it's just burnt food. It's better than eating stale fries every day.

"So what? So it's a little burnt. Big deal," I said.

"You did this on purpose."

"Did not." I turned around and made my way back towards Annabeth.

"How am I supposed to study if I'm taking care of your sorry butt? If I fail my test tomorrow it's all your fault!"

She stepped forward and put her house shoes on. She probably has every intention on one, not cleaning this up. And two, blaming it all on me.

"Oh yeah? Why is that?"

"Why? None of this would be happening if it wasn't for you! Everything's your fault! You killed mom! You're a monster, a monster!"

And I was sure that was going to say a whole lot more if it wasn't for the fact that Annabeth was still standing in the front doorway of our house, which happened to have a clear view of the living room.

She gasped and flushed. Then she wiped up her tears, kind of shuffled the broken glass to the side and walked over awkwardly.

"Oh. Annabeth, I didn't see you." Annabeth just kept frowning.

I wondered if, she'd turn out like the rest. They'd hear that line: 'You killed mom', that line that replays over and over in my head and plagues my mind. That line that built this wall between me, and the rest of the world. That line that started it all. After people hear that, they always make a run for it. If it's a girl, they spend their days living in fear of me, and change schools after a while. If it's a boy well, how else do you think i got my 'gang'?

But Annabeth chase wasn't your average girl next door. It's like that emperor from Mulan says. 'You don't find a girl like that every dynasty."

"This is for you," Annabeth said before handing Misty the autograph.

"Thanks. I could only imagine what you think of me right now," Misty said before darting upstairs.

For a minute I just kind of hid in my bangs. That's the only good thing about my hair. It's long-ish and dark and think so that if I lean forward and cover my eyes, it provides me something almost like a safe little shell away from the world.

Up until this point, I was still seething after Misty's little 'showcase of emotions'. So much that I didn't even turn around and face the girl that was the only one who ever _wanted_ to have anything to do with me. But her voice was enough to snap me out of it.

"Percy? What did- what did she mean by-" she started. Her voice sounded like she was almost crying. I cut her off so because right then that was the last thing I wanted to hear.

"My mom she- she died while she was giving birth to me." i came clean and I really couldn't tell you how good it felt. The only other one who knew was Grover, and he barely even spoke to me for a while after I told him.

"So your family. . . that's why they act this way. All this time they've been blaming you." I nodded a little and her eyes widened 1000%.

"All your life. . . That's not right, they're crazy. I'm sorry, but they are. I mean, your mother, she must have loved you or else she never would have had you at that price."

Well, my dad was telling her to abort mission the whole time. I heard him talking to Misty about it all the time. He say 'I wonder why Sally ever did that. it wasn't worth it.' At first, I'd cry. Then over the course of time, I just got numb to it.

"You can't let things go on like this." Annabeth's voice rung out of the silence. And I didn't say anything so we just sat there for a while. Before her frown turned into a wide grin.

"Hey listen! I'll work really hard on my TV movie! You just be ready to do your part, okay? Ciaou!"

She went ahead and made that huge scene and just left like some kind of deadbeat dad, leaving me staring after her.

I will _never_ understand that girl.

 **~PoV Switch~**

 **~Annabeth~**

Just as I was jogging out of Percy's house, I heard name drift out into the night air.

"Psssst, Annabeth!"

For a minute there I thought it was a ghost and I was just about ready to bust out my sweet karate moves but then I realized, karate doesn't work on ghost. So I panicked before I remembered, ghosts aren't real,

"Pssst, up here!" the voice called again. I glanced up to find Misty with her window open.

"I'm sorry about earlier, but thanks for the autograph. I really love it."

"Yeah, sure thing don't mention it." I waved it off.

"Well, I'll catch you later?"

"Okay."

What she didn't know is that I'd be seeing her _real_ soon.

I headed for Malcolm's car which had been parked. He was freestyle rapping about his sunglasses. He freaked out when I started singing along to Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star with him.

"So, uh, how'd it go in there?" he stuttered out.

"I'm going to work really hard on this movie," I decided.

"Oh, well that's good, you didn't seem so thrilled about it earlier today."

"Well, I wasn't. It was a little too depressing for my taste, but I'm willing to look past all that now. Get this, the family in the story is just like Percy's! Identical." I whispered. You never know, there are some real creeps here in Manhattan.

"Oh?" Malcolm said.

"The movie is really depressing, but it has a happy ending! I'm gonna do my best so Percy's family can watch it together and maybe they'll have a happy ending too!" I remembered that sometimes I can be a little too overwhelming according to the things that Percy said by the tree, and chilled.

"You seem serious." Malcolm leaned out of the driver's window of the car to keep talking.

"I don't care what he says. I'm gonna help him out whether he likes it or not."

 _Just you wait Percy; I'll have you smiling before you know it. Maybe then you'll stop being such a downer all the time and actually start enjoying life._

"Okay Malcolm, let's go home and practice some lines," I said. He was taken aback for second before regaining his composure.

"You got it."

 **So this chapter clocked in at:**

 **Pages: 29**

 **Words: 7619**

 **Characters: 40520**

 **Characters (excluding spaces): 32891**

 **So we learned some stuff about Percy! His sister is Misty, Sally is dead (D:), and his family sucks!**

 **On a happier note, they will be some Percabeth in the next one to two chapters. I really sorry for not updating. I've just been really busy on vacay.**

 **About rover's last name, I'll explain laterrrr :D**

 **Follow your dreams!**

 **Baibai!**

 **-Charlotte**


	6. Robbery in Progress!

**Hey people!**

 **This will probably be posted really late. That's because after getting a million hate comments, I'm going to redo all the chapters. It really shouldn't disrupt anything, just putting it out there.**

 **Look, I'm really sorry about the extremely late update. It's just that, things have been really hectic around the house lately. My brother suddenly taking interest the laptop and wanting to use it all the time, my sister moving out, my aunt moving in, my cousin moving in and then out again, vacation, and what with school starting up again. . . it's just a little too much for me to handle.**

 **I swear, I'll try to update as much as I can but. . . school always comes first guys, sorry. If you haven't already noticed, I'm going to make this chapter double what I usually write to make up for it, so get comfy, it's going to be a long 20,000 words!**

 **Nico Di Awesome said: This may be the best chapter you have written! Who's Percy's dad through? I was reading this in the morning and this chapter was so great that I read it while brushing my teeth! Is that weird?**

 **I say: Thank you! You're gonna find out sometime in this chapter. And that's totally not weird, I find it sweet, actually!**

 **DAOfficial said: This story is hopelessly immature and utterly lacking in plot!**

 **I say: Okay, then don't read it.**

 **Guest said:Good story idea but your terrible sentence structure and grammar make it difficult to follow.**

 **I say: I'll work on that!**

 **So, without further adieu, the chapter.**

 **Previously on** _ **Child's Toy:**_

" _The movie is really depressing, but it has a happy ending! I'm gonna do my best so Percy's family can watch it together and maybe they'll have a happy ending too!" -Annabeth_

" _My mom she- she died while she was giving birth to me." -Percy_

 **Chapter 6: Robbery in Progress**

 **~Grover's PoV~**

 **~A couple people asked me to do it, so here it is!~**

I was contentedly climbing up the concrete steps of Half Blood Junior High, minding my own business and such, when I suddenly got a _terrible_ feeling that something bad was about to happen. Deciding to ignore it, I continued on my way. That was my mistake. I should have ran.

"Grover!" I heard Annabeth yelled from a distance. I practically flipped around to find that she was running at me so fast I almost mistook her for Usain Bolt.

I full out started sprinting away from the girl, well, the best I could with my athletic ability, but she just sped up even more than I thought possible till she was just in arms reach, but couldn't quite grab me.

"Wait, I wanna talk to you!" She hollered breathlessly as her fingers brushed the back of my neck and I yelped, though I was embarrassed that it came out sounding strangely like a goat bleat. The feeling of her touching me brought heat to the surface of the back of my neat, slowly spread until my whole face burned.

Around Annabeth, I turn into a different person. I get shy and blush practically runs up my cheeks whenever I'm too close to her. And keeping her close just makes it too obvious.

"No thanks!" I heaved. Whatever she wanted to 'talk' about probably involved me getting hurt, so I was just going to stay out of that.

She gave out a yell from behind me and next thing I know, I plop on my ground and land on my butt. I squeeze my eyes shut and groan. See what I said? Whatever she wanted to 'talk' about involved me getting hurt.

"Why'd you run away?" she demanded.

"Sorry, I got scared," I tried to amend.

"What do I look like, a psycho?" The blonde girl asked.

No comment.

 **~Annabeth's PoV~**

I was sitting on a bench on the outskirts of the soccer field next to Grover, and we were talking about you-know-who. And no, to all you Harry Potter fans, that does not mean we were not talking about Voldemort.

"I wanted to ask you something. It's about Percy's family," I sighed. Even though it was only, like, nine in the morning, today had been really tiring. Working regularly plus taking care of Percy like he was _my_ child had really taken it's toll on me.

"Shoot," he said.

"I went to Percy's house yesterday and he had another fight with his sister. She said he killed her mom because she died giving birth to him, do you know anything about that?" He stared at me for just long enough for it to be awkward, and looked away blushing. Grover really blushed a lot, from what I saw. Or maybe he only blushed when I was around? We just sprinted like, 100 meters so maybe he was just red-faced from the workout. Either way it was weird, how often he did it.

"Percy's mom had some health problems. I don't know what exactly, but I guess they left her pretty weak. Giving birth to a kid was just more strain than her body could handle. It wasn't his fault, but up until, like, fourth grade Percy really thought he was some kind of monster. He used to say he bursted out of his mom's stomach like in one of those alien movies. I tried to tell him it wasn't true, but I guess well . . . I guess well now you can tell why he did what he did to Piper the other day,"

I remember what Piper said. She called him a monster. That must have really hit him on a personal level. But that still didn't justify anything. He probably gave her some kind of trauma for life. There was a small chance that she could have died back there. You should see the way she acts when he comes within three feet of her, and it doesn't help that they sit two seats away from each other. School has become a nightmare for her just because he can be rash.

"I guess what she said hit a little too close to home," Grover continued. "I hope you won't be too hard on him. See his family is-" He yelped when he saw the look on my face. Though, honestly, I didn't think it looked that bad. My eyes were wide and my mouth was pulled into a frown.

"They're literally crazy. Don't they know that if you call him a monster his whole life, then of course he's gonna act like one! They don't even have the right to be family, ugh!" I frustratedly ran my hands through my hair and huffed. It was actually brutal, how they treated him. I almost made me want to adopt him. But then I remembered the movie, and how everything would be fine after it aired.

"I'll work real hard on my movie, kay?" I said, suddenly more cheerful then I had been all day. Grover nodded numbly, and I skipped off.

 **~Linebreak~**

"Kay, bye mama!" I was going to the first shoot of my movie, and Mom was sitting at her computer desk with a little waterfall that Miko was bathing in resting on top of her head. Will, our editor, was standing in the threshold watching her.

"Oh Annabeth, I heard your starting that new movie," he said, smiling.

"Yeah, I'm headed there now." I smiled back.

Will had always given off that kind of sunny, happy vibe. The kind of vibe that just makes you want to smile and cuddle with something. I kind of felt bad that it was all wasted because Mother was too lazy to get her manuscript done by the deadline. Some days, he didn't even get to return home. His girlfriend _dumped_ him. It's really a hard knock life for Will Solace.

"Enjoy your freedom, my beloved daughter," Mother said whimsically.

"What's she doing?" I asked Will, who had still been smiling at her.

"I made her work on her manuscript. She's trying to get some ideas flowing."

"Well, hope you get a big one, bye!" With that, I left the scene.

 **~Linebreak~**

"The new and improved Super Vitamin Plus! The super potent vitamin energy drink! Just one sip, and you're super charged for the day! Super Vitamin Plus, just what the body needs."

I rehearsed my lines for the upcoming commercial in the passenger seat mirror, I had a commercial that day before the big movie. On a completely different note, I ended up having to rehearse again for the 17th time because I didn't look like I was on enough of a sugar high. It was more like a sugar boost, according to Malcolm.

"Wanna sip, Malcolm?" I held up the small energy bottle to my chauffeur.

"No," he said firmly. We drove the rest of the way in silence.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~On the set of the movie~**

"Hi, I'm Annabeth Chase. Please take care of me." I smiled at the makers at the movie who were lined up in front of me. They muttered in agreement.

"Sorry, I couldn't make it to the production meeting," I thought about that time the annoying producer made Malcolm and I feel bad for coming late. Which made me want Percy's family to watch the movie even more, because then the producer stop being such a meanie to me. He still holds a grudge on me for coming late. Everytime I make the littlest mistake on set, it's always 'Cut!' this and 'Cut!' that.

"It's cool, we'll get you up to speed," one of the producers said, and I gave my best smile at him. The smile I only use when I'm modeling.

"Well! If it isn't my number one star pupil!" I knew that voice from anywhere, the slight lisp from his enormous front teeth, it had to be Zach Helfin. Suddenly, Zach appeared out of nowhere in what looked like a police officer's costume. The thing about Zach is that you never know when you're going to see him. Last week, when I came to my bedroom to sleep, I found him sleeping at the foot at my bed. Of course, that's only because he forgot to pay rent again and he didn't know where else to go. He was one of those small- time actor who really didn't get paid so much.

"Hey, Zach! What are you doing here?" It was actually kind of refreshing to see his face. It was so tense in here, with all these big-time directors, producers, actors, and actresses, it wasn't anything like Child's Toy, where you could just goof around and be stupid for a while.

I felt uncomfortable too. My hair was straightened, and the new length was hot and stuffy, my costume pinched me, they put eyedrops in my eyes to help me cry, which burned, by the way. I had colored contacts in, they were a deep, ocean blue. They itched, and I was just feeling terrible. But, anything for Percy, right?

"Break a leg today, you have a terrific role!" He grabbed my shoulders and smiled into my face, his huge front teeth poking out of his top lip a little. "I'm really jealous," he finished.

"Oh wait, you came all the way over here just to wish me luck That's great!" I said. That was really sweet. Sometimes I'm rude to Zach, but that's just because his face kind of annoys me. He had a good heart.

"Oh, well that and to say 'hello'" he said. I was suddenly interested. But then I started talking to this other producer, Dakota, and just kind of ignored whatever Zach was saying.

"I'm in the movie too, you see? I come in at scene twelve and say 'Hello!'" I heard what he said, but it just kind of went out the other ear.

And then I remembered who the other main character was going to be.

"Hey Malcolm, do you know if Lacy is here? I'm just _dying_ to meet her," Malcolm's smile fell so quick I almost swore it was never there. In fact, he had been acting a little out of it ever since the drive here. But right now I needed him for advice, so I ignored it.

Lacy Lockheart was the biggest star of today. Even bigger than me. She was on front cover of everything. She was all over TV. She had countless Emmy's, Grammy's, Oscar's. She even had like, five Nickelodeon blimps, meanwhile, I only had two. She had been my idol since before I could talk, I strived to be like her everyday of my life. Me even looked kind of like me. Long, straight, golden hair and purple eyes.

She had purple eyes because of a defect when she was born. But they looked so pretty on her. Kind of like mine. Grey isn't really an eye color, but I'd like to say it suits me.

"What do you think I should do? Just go say 'hi'? I'm so nervous! She's one of my favorite actresses, her performances are so natural. I was _so_ excited when I found out she was playing my sister, I just hope I can keep up!" I said to Malcolm and Zach.

"I agree one hundred percent, I was just as excited when I found out I was playing the police officer!" Zach nodded, but again, it went out the other ear. I looked over for my boyfriend's input, but I found that he was gone.

That was really weird. He's always so pumped about being my manager, and I usually give him a make-sure-you-wish-me-good-luck kiss on the cheek before I go on set. Maybe he just went to the bathroom, he should really tell me these kinds of things. But, all humans do it, so I guess I can't blame him for wanting to keep it to himself.

"Excuse me, Annabeth? You _are_ Annabeth right?" an unfamiliar yet totally familiar voice called out from behind me. I turned out to confront the culprit to find myself face-to-face with none other than the famous acting sensation, Lacy Lockheart. I know this is cliche, but she really was more beautiful in person.

"Hi well I'm- I'm Annabeth Chase, it's an honor to meet you!"

She snickered a little and in that moment, my whole life went downhill. I mean, if she didn't like me she could request a new actress, and they'd totally do it because she's uber famous and she's the main character. And then our relationship would be ruined and Malcolm would leave me for her and my friends would leave me because I would look bad in the media and my acting career would be over. Mama would put me up for adoption again, Percy would mess himself up more, Misty would kill me and everything would go really bad.

But then I remembered what Malcolm told me about overreacting. So I had to cool it.

"Oh please, I watch you and Zach on Child's Toy all the time! And I _love_ your mother's books, I've read, like, all of them! The honor is mine!" She held out her hand. Okay. So she wanted me to shake her hand. I think I'm melting.

After ten more seconds of mental preparation, I tentatively inched over and took her hand lightly and gave two pumps. I swear, in that span of two seconds, I almost spontaneously combusted.

"Oh no, it's totally mine," I said. I didn't want to seem cocky or anything, I mean, she so much of a better actress than me. I actually pictured her to be a bit spoiled, but she was _so_ nice to me. Unlike a certain manger who bailed on me.

"Lacy? We need you in makeup!" What seemed to be her manager called.

"Well, I have to go, I really want to talk to you, maybe during break?" she asked.

"Definately!" I promised.

"Annabeth!" I heard someone call from behind were so many people popping up behind me today? Why couldn't they just approach me from the front? Did I have something on my face? I turned around to find Mitchell, carrying a gym bag and waving at me.

"Ready for make up?" he said as soon as he caught my attention.

"Um, yeah," I said and turned back around to steal glance at Lacy from across the room, she was staring at the spot in which Malcolm and I were talking just moments ago, usually one would have thought she was just spacing out, But the look in her eyes . . . it wasn't empty, it was wistful and wanting. I jogged over to her and snapped my fingers in her face and she jumped.

"Wha- telephone!" she exclaimed.

I chuckled a little. "I have to drop by make up too. Wanna walk there together?" I offered and really hoped she didn't decline it. It would make we look like a total fool she said no.

"Uh, no thanks," Great, she made my nightmare come true. "I think I'll head the long way," She walked on in the direction opposite me.

Trust me, I really wanted to follow her and spend more time with my number one role model, but the way she walked out was weird, like she wasn't just going there to stop at the vending machine that has special bags of chips with no air in them.

At any rate, Mitchell was getting a little annoyed and the first scene was about to be filmed, so there was no time. I quickly moved towards Mitchell, who had already set up his little kiosk in the time I was conversing. On a completely unrelated note, Malcolm hadn't come back from the bathroom. I figured he must be sick or something and shrugged it off.

With that, Mitchell undid my ponytail.

 **~Grover's PoV~**

"Wow, so Annabeth is absent for real this time," Juniper said. I always liked to pay special attention to Juniper. She was really pretty with her orange hair, but more important than that, she usually unconsciously gave me the details on Annabeth's whereabouts.

Percy and I were sitting on the back counter together, not looking at each other, talking to each other, or anything. We were just staring out into space and eavesdropping a little bit.

We watched Juniper, Thalia, and Piper's little conversation. It was actually kind of cool how girls interact. They'll start off by talking about their ideal guy or something, and end up talking about what they're going to eat for dinner, it's weird.

"Yeah, she's filming that made for TV movie today," Piper said. By the way she was shifting, I could tell that she was uncomfortable with Percy just two feet away from her.

"It sure gets dull in this place without her, doesn't it? " Thalia sighed. And I'd hate to admit that she was right.

"So did that toilet in the bathroom get fixed yet?" Juniper asked, and I could tell the conversation was only going downhill from there, so I tuned out and glanced at Percy, who was looking off into space.

"I guess Annabeth actually never did say what her movie was going to be about, but whatever it is, I got the impression that she's really excited to show it to your family," I started the conversation..

"Stupid," he muttered. "That girl needs to mind her own business." And then I got mad. Annabeth was just trying to help. He doesn't realize that it's time for change. On the inside, Percy is a really nice guy. Why can't he just accept help?

"Percy." I said through gritted teeth. "Why the hell do you always have to be so negative about everything? Can't you see Annabeth is just trying to do something nice?" I was literally about to flip a desk until he clocked me in the head, and I calmed down. Partially because he hit a pressure point.

"You make it sound like I've got a choice, that just the way I think. I can't help it if it's negative." He sighed. "Yeah, I guess negative is the only way a guy like me knows how to think," he pondered aimlessly.

While he stared absently at the ceiling, I wondered how long it had been since he had shared his feelings like. Months- no years, maybe. And for a second, I felt a tiny spark of hope. This was the first time in the last several years that Percy had shown even a sliver of humanity. I started to really believe in Annabeth and her movie.

And I believed in Percy, and I believed in getting better.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Back to Annabeth~**

The movie had been absolutely exhausting.

It really was a very sad movie. The producer had even cried through most of it. It was about two sisters whose mom had fallen ill giving birth to the second one- me. Their dad left them, not wanting two problem children and a sick wife. Which left the older sister, Summer, (Lacy) to work and care for Autumn (me). She missed out on everything in life, and reminded Autumn of it everyday.

I could tell I acted pretty well, but it still paled in complexion to Lacy's. She was perfect, totally believable. During scene nine, actually, I had refused to talk to her without an apology. It was completely irrational, I know. But the way she acted- that was totally uncalled for. Okay, technically it was completely called for because it was actually in the script- but it still hurt, okay?

At any rate, she laughed and apologized and it left me feeling really childish.

Scene eleven was the worst. It all felt so real.

I had entered the scene to find Lacy sitting at a table with some iced tea, her head in her hands. She looked so downtrodden, I almost forgot my lines.

Almost.

"Hi sis, are you busy? Can please I come in?" I asked her. And then mentally facepalmed. It was supposed to be 'Hey sis, are you busy? Can I come in?' I paused for a second, waiting for the rude director to say 'Cut!' again, and then do the scene over. I was surprised when he just rolled with it.

She slowly turned her head and looked at me with cold eyes. My heart sped up. "What now?" she said slowly, before turning her head back.

I fidgeted a little a gave a nervous laugh. "I just wanted-"

"Lunch money, right?" She cut me off. "Wait, you want to go to the amusement park with your little friend. How about a new party dress? New shoes? What is it this time, huh?"

She paused a little and I opened my mouth to say something and she snapped her head towards me. "How much more do you want from me?!" she hollered.

"No sis, I- I just want to-" I started. She hurriedly pulled out her wallet prop, snatched all the money out of it, and threw at me, knocking over her tea in the process. I took a couple of quarters to the face and wet socks because of the tea. The dollars floated to the ground and I fell to my knees with them.

"You've. . . already taken everything else. All the other girls my age are off at college, having the time of their lives," She whispered.

"Summer please," I begging.

"And do you know why I'm stuck here, Autumn, or the real reason mom's in the hospital? It's because she could handle the strain of having another child. You put her through hell and now look at her. Ever since you were born I've had to work to put food on your plate. What about me, what about my life? I've had it!" She pushed the vase off the table and let it shatter on the ground. "You're a monster! I hate you, I wished you'd never been born!"

This was the part when I supposed to brush my hair out of my eyes, but on the way, my hand brushed my face and came back wet. It was only then I realized that I had been crying. So I just let my fall to my sides, the words ringing in my ears. But then I remembered I was acting, and picked myself back up, made my way to the door and put my hand on the handle. I let it stay there for a second before I turned around. "I'm sorry," I whispered before dropping a blue paper bag on the floor and running out.

"Autumn!" Lacy called out before I slammed the door on her.

After I had left, I rounded the scene and came back to the front to watch Lacy, she went to pick up the bag and stared at it. "It's a birthday present," she said in wonder. "This was for me." And then she too, had started to cry.

"Cut, okay!" The director said.

Zach immediately approached me, fanning his eyes. "Annabeth, that was so touching! I didn't know you could cry on cue like that!"

"Oh yeah, it was a trick I learned at Komowari," I lied, tears still rolling down my cheeks.

"Would you like a tissue?" he offered, I declined. He got called up to do his scene, and left. Immediately after he left, Mitchell quietly scolded me for crying so much, my eyes would get poofy, but thank the gods my makeup was waterproof. The tears would literally not stop coming out.

It was scary, really. How much it affected me. I mean, this was all just an act and it hurt this much. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like when your family actually meant it.

After finishing half the movie, we were allowed a break, I was walking down the hall, hoping to pick up a Cola after all the emotional strain that movie put me through. When I finally reached the vending machine, a hand popped up from behind it, covered my mouth and pulled me behind the red machine.

For a split second, I thought it was Percy, my scream was muffled by the hand over my mouth. Speaking of hands, the one over my mouth was way too big to be Percy's. I turned around to find Malcolm.

"What are you doing back here?" I whispered fiercely.

"Are you on break?" He completely ignored my question. "Come on, we have a magazine shoot to do." He grabbed my hand and fast-walked down the hall, dragging me behind him.

Malcolm sure had been acting funny lately. I wondered why. Maybe he didn't approve of the movie? No, he was the one who suggested it. Then it came to me.

He was jealous.

He saw the way I was thinking about Percy while doing the movie and he got jealous. I laughed a little, deciding to confront him on the matter after the movie was over. Malcolm sure didn't know how to control his love for me. I found it cute.

Later on I found out that that wasn't the case, far from it, actually.

 **~Linebreak~**

"I'm Annabeth Chase, age fourteen, I'm in the eighth grade, I'm a member of the Komowari theater company, and my favorite food is spaghetti!" I feigned confidence for the interview, but inside, I was utterly exhausted.

"Well that covers the basics," The interview man said. "Moving right along, this is your first experience in a serious, dramatic role, can you give us your impression so far?"

"No sorry, I don't do impressions, but let's just say that I'm doing this for someone else,"I said. Then the guy asked me to evaluate, at first I didn't really want to share about my personal, that always led to bad rumors and stories.

"See there's this family that really need to see it. They're exactly like the people in the story, except the little sister is a little brother and the dad-"

I stopped because of what I saw in the window behind the interview guy. It was none other that Mr. Jackson walking down the street. I quickly stood up, the table rattling under me, and made a beeline for the door. The interviewer called after me but I ignored it was I ran down the street towards the man.

He was wearing a tux, toting his briefcase at his side. I stopped in front of him and he also stopped. We kind of looked at each other for a little bit and when I was absolutely sure he didn't recognize me at all- not even from TV- I made the first move.

"Hi, Percy's dad," I said, suddenly nervous. Because Percy's family was crazy. For all I know he could assassinate me, right here, right now.

"Hi. Uh, do I know you?" he asked. By the way he said it, I could tell he was in a hurry, but none of that mattered. If I could miss an interview, he could miss whatever his job was.

"I'm Annabeth, from your son's class," I introduced myself.

"I see. Then you and he are friends, I take it? I understand Percy's been doing quite well in school lately." He was really business-like. Though he didn't say much, you could tell that he was really mature, stressed, even?

But still, that proves my point. Any sane person would know that Percy is _never_ doing well in school; both behaviorally and academically. So basically, at home Percy is being ignored, bullied, hurt, _and_ neglected. It must be terrible there.

"That draws the line, you don't know anything about Percy's life. What kind of mush for brains dad are you?" The snarky retort just kind of slipped out, but I rolled with it.

"Um, mush for brains?" he asked, not sounding very business-like at all.

"Yeah, and this is all your fault. You and your daughter turned Percy into a monster, and that made him tear up our class and mess with the teachers. Your lucky I was there, first he was a boss monkey, and then a lone wolf, and now he's Mr. Dark and Gloomy and who knows what he'll be next!"

"Monster?" Was all he could say to my long spiel and I felt my blood boil. What kind of parenting was this? I get it's hard without a mom around, but even I could parent better than this at my age!

"Oh yeah, sure like you don't know," I spat sarcastically. Then I felt my body shake, which I recognized to be Malcolm buzzing me in on Barucha. Then I remember that one, I'm still in an interview, and two, I'm just on break from the movie; I had to make this quick. "This is far from over. Now, make sure you tune in to channel twenty-five next Friday night at eight, okay?" I hurried off back towards the building I came from. I had to admit, it wasn't the best inspirational speech, but that was just about all I could give because I had some family fixing to do.

 **~Linebreak~**

After putting the finishing touches on the interview, I decided to take a long, romantic walk around the halls of the broadcasting studio with Malcolm. I was enjoying it, Coca Cola in hand and all, when I turned around to find that Malcolm wasn't behind me anymore. Ha, you know what was funny about that? NOTHING. Because I was totally pissed at him for disappearing left and right. I was over it, done with it.

I mean, what was his deal lately? He my boyfriend, which meant I was supposed to understand him better than anyone. I mean, lately I've been focusing a lot on Percy, but that was because he needed help! Malcolm shouldn't be jealous of that little hellion. Never in a million years would I ever even begin to think about falling in love with him.

However, Percy _was_ taking up a pretty big bubble of my life. I hope Malcolm won't turn into the overprotective type. Sure, earlier I said it would kind of cute- but if it meant acting like _this_ , I'd rather not have that. I've always felt like Percy would be that type, if he ever got a girlfriend. My life in general has been tiring lately, what with Percy having one problem after the next. First, it had been his social life. I got rid of the kissing teachers photo, his gang, and his grudges against girls. Then his attitude; I think I had whipped into shape pretty well in the past couple of days. Then, his family. What's next, a long lost brother?

"-abeth?" The last syllables of my name cut me out of my brooding stupor. I looked up to see Lacy looming over me, a concerned frown etched on her face.

"Oh, Lacy. Hi." I pulled a fake smile onto my face.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she asked politely. In my defense, I _was_ sitting in the corner between the vending machine and the wall.

"No, not at all."

She laughed a little. "Look, I know this might sound a little strange, but is your manager with you today?" She grimaced like she was in pain. I wondered what that all about.

"Yeah, he supposed to be," I snarled. Then I remembered I was with Lacy, so I fixed my unlady like face and smiled. "But he's acting kind of screwy, he disappears everytime I turn around. Why, did you need him?"

"Uh no, no. It's nothing important." She gave a nervous laugh.

"I can page him if you want me to," I said, fishing around in my pocket for my Barucha.

Lacy didn't get to say anything, because one of the directors called us down to make up.

I whipped around and jogged back towards the set after her, I just really wanted to get this thing over with.

The rest of the move went by in a blur. There were a lot of tears, both of sadness and happiness. And one from stubbing my toe on the threshold of a door. It was all around good experience.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~A week later~**

I marched on down to the Jackson family's house on a friday night just to make sure they sit there for the movie. I hit the doorbell twice. I was about to hit a third time before Misty's head popped through the brown double doors.

"Oh Annabeth, it's you," she smiled.

"Good afternoon- er, evening."

"What're you going out here?" she asked, stepping outside a bit.

"Oh, I just came to remind you about the movie tonight."

"A movie? What kind?" she asked and my stomach dropped. Percy must have not told her. Of course, he never communicates with his family.

"You mean he didn't tell you?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Tell me what?"

"Percy didn't ask you to watch TV with him?" I asked. This could not be true. I spent all this time on the movie to have Percy ditch it. I swear, if I ever see that boy again, I'm going to clock him upside the head.

"No. Percy's not even here. He just went out somewhere to get dinner." She shrigged. My heart sped up.

"Okay, so what about your dad?" I asked, I mean, I could deal with Percy personally. I needed the two other members of his crazy stew family.

"No, I think he's working late at the office. He probably won't be home for a couple hours."

I couldn't believe it. I told both of those boys a million time to watch the freaking movie I worked so hard on and look, none of them even turned up! They all were supposed to watch it together!

"What is she doing here?" A low voice fished me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, dad I thought you were working late." Misty's voice rang in my ears.

I turned around to find standing there, briefcase and all. I pushed him towards his daughter.

"Well, at least we have the mush for brains dad and daughter together!" I smiled.

"Mush for brains?" Misty asked.

"Yeah, you know, like complete idiots." I smiled, before suddenly getting mad. "How could you let an eighth grader go eat dinner alone this late at night? Isn't he related to you?"

"Actually, no," Misty, to my surprise, said.

"What?" I asked. I mean, Percy had to be related to them. It's all that made sense.

"Percy isn't my brother, and dad isn't his dad." She said it like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"What?" I asked for the second time.

"My mother was, of course, Sally Jackson. She was married to this rude guy named Gabe Ugliano who hit her, got her pregnant, and left as soon as she found out I was due. Nine months later, I was born. Then, mom met this lifeguard at a family trip to Montauk. Three years later, Percy was born to Poseidon. So Percy is only like a step-brother."

"So then who is this stranger?" I gestured to Mr. Jackson. He looked offended, but I ignored it.

"He's Paul Blofis. Mom last husband before she died. They never had kids, though Percy was supposed to be a twin. The second one died. We were going to name him Tyson," Misty sighed.

"You guys really are crazy. You call him one everyday but you're the real monsters," I spat. I turned to walk out, before turning back around to make one last statement. "And watch channel 52 at eight" With that, I turned on my heel and sprinted down the street to find Percy, leaving his family behind.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Percy's PoV (I had to do it, just once)~**

I was just sitting on the park bench, eating my fries when I was cursed with the presence of Annabeth Chase.

She popped up behind me and I immediately got up to make a run for it, but I was stopped by her hand clasped tightly around the collar of my sweatshirt. "Come on, what are you running away, it's just me," she said.

"You answered your own question," I retorted. She pulled me back until I fell on the bench beside her. After I realized that escape was futile, we sat in silence for a couple seconds.

She swiped my fries from beside me. "Wow, is this all your eating?" she asked while taking a fry for herself. I quickly swiped the box away.

"That reminds me," she said bitterly, popping a fry into her mouth. Suddenly, she grabbed both of my shoulders and started to shake me. "You need to watch my movie! Hurry it's going to start!"

The familiar sound of the park bell tonging in a new hour from the huge clock was enough to see that it was too late for her little movie. She stopped and let her hands linger on my shoulders.

"You know you really should have watched it together."

"Huh?" I said, sipping my drink.

"You know, you, your dad, and your sister," she sighed and flopped down next to me.

"Why is that? We've never watched TV together before," I said. I t was true. Some made for TV movie isn't going to fix whatever we had now. None of them were even related to me. I doubt they could even stand me sitting next to them.

We stayed in silence for a while, Annabeth face slowly took on the form of a sad frown, and it kind of made me sad too, for making her feel like that.

"Hey Percy?" she asked at last.

"Yeah?" I said. For some reason, I was eager to talk to her.

"Do you ever miss having your mom around?" she asked quietly.

"I dunno. How can you miss something you never had?" I said.

"Oh yeah. I guess that makes sense." she gasped. "So do you want to find out what it's like?"

"What?"

"I'll pretend I'm your mother!" She smiled.

"No."

"No seriously, I can do it. Watch." She slipped her hair out of the ponytail. Only then did I notice that her hair was straightened that day. I didn't like it. Her hair was so pretty curly, why ruin that?

"I'm your mom. . ." she muttered over at over before suddenly smiling. "Hello, dear."

Soda literally flew out of my nose.

"My little boy, oh you're so cute with soda coming out of your nose. I have a nice dinner all ready for you, but first you have to wash your hands."

"I'm not playing this game." I decided, wiping my nose.

"Now do as I say dear," she laughed a little, before getting all close to my ear and whispering, "Don't you forget, mommy has your naked picture."

"Fine." I got up and sat on the bench opposite from her.

"Oh, don't be shy honey, come sit on mommy's lap!" She patted her legs and I decided that no naked picture was worth this.

"I will assassinate you," she whispered fiercely. And in that moment, I just gave up. I treaded over and put my head in her lap. She started singing some random nursery rhymes and ruffling my hair.

It felt good, really, to have someone there.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Misty's PoV (Just a quick one)**

"Mama, why did you have to have me?" Annabeth's voice sounded from the TV. After her little visit, I decided to watch her movie.

"I love you Autumn. From the first time I felt you kick in my belly and before, I loved you with all my heart. Autumn, you're my baby. I gave birth to you because, I wanted you to live. Live for me, live for my sake. Live with all my love, Autumn"

I don't know why I never saw it before, how awful I've been. I blamed him for everything and I've said such horrible things to him. I told him I hated him and I called him a monster! I felt tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Dad?" I called out.

"Misty, it's not your fault." He read my mind and engulfed me in a hug.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Back to Percy~**

"Percy, you're my baby. I gave birth to you because, I wanted you to live. Live for me, live for my sake. Live with all my love, Percy," Annabeth comforted me and ruffled my hair softly.

I got dizzy from embarrassment and let my eyes fluttered closed and I just enjoyed Annabeth. Smelt like lemons and candy and her lap was so warm.

"Ouch!" she said suddenly before lifting me up by the shoulders. "You're burning up, that's why you were so quiet, you're sick!"

"No I'm not," My vision suddenly went blurry. Shapes stretched and colors changed before I collapsed. On second thought, maybe that dizziness wasn't from embarrassment "Just leave me alone." I got up.

"But-"

"I have total control over my body," I lied as I stumbled around.

"No you don't you idiot." She walked up to me and grabbed one of my hands. "You put way too much pressure on yourself, just let me help you for once."

 _Okay._ I thought before falling forward into her arms.

"You're going home," she said.

"No, let me go," I slurred while I struggled a little, but honestly, I was too weak to do any damage.

We had been walking for a long time before an unfamiliar voice sounded from above me. "What happened?"

I heard Annabeth's gasp. "Mr. Blofis! He was a terrible fever, come and check his forehead, it's like a million degrees."

Paul stepped forward to touch my forehead, but I slapped it away.

"No, I'm fine," I stood up. We stared at each other for a while. Green against brown.

"There are so many years in those youngs eyes, Percy. I'm sorry," he apologized. He scooped me up and slung me over his shoulder.

Before we could go home, he turned around. "Oh, Annabeth. Your movie was great. Thank you for all the help, good night."

In Paul's arms, I felt so small, like I was a child. But then again, I have been a child the whole time. But I still felt like I had ascended from tough-as-nails Percy and child Percy.

I supposed I had become more than both.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **(A/N: This is where I was supposed to end the chapter but I'm doubling it, so enjoy the second half!)**

"I'm home!" I called while shutting the front door of the house. I toed my shoes off and carefully lined them up in the corner. I was utterly exhausted, because of both the movie and the whole fixing Percy's family. Hopefully, after tonight they'll be normal again.

"So I'm guessing things went well over at the Jackson's?" Mama said. She was typing away on her iPad on the couch.

"Not exactly according to plan." I chuckled. "But I still think it worked out okay."

Then I remembered my newest project. Fixing Malcolm. I scanned the room, only to find no trace of him. I flopped down on the couch. "Where's Malcolm?" I muttered to myself.

"He had a headache, so he turned in early," Mom said.

So that meant I had to sleep alone? I was kind of hoping that he'd hug me and tell me how great I was for finishing the movie and fixing the Jackson's- or the Blofis-Ugliano-Jackson's- whatever you want to call then.

I thought about everything I went through today, the movie, Malcolm's antics, school, walking to Percy's house, and coming all the way home at ten o'clock. I felt my eyelids get heavier; letting them flutter close when I could hold them up anymore. I stayed awake as I thought about Percy. His personality wasn't deep. He was static, flat. There had to be more depth, more dynamic to him I felt myself get a little enthusiastic about getting to know him.

I don't know why, but Percy Jackson was exciting.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Percy's PoV (We're seeing a lot of him today!)~**

I woke up with a start.

Cold water ran down my forehead, and all over my face. I grabbed at my forehead and felt something cold and squishy. I pulled it off to find a Ziploc bag filled with water, with tiny pieces of ice floating around in it. They must have melted or something overnight. It was at that moment that I took in my surroundings. I was in my room, in my bed, with the covers tucked up to my chin.

I felt awful. My eyes burned, my throat was dry and itchy, my left nostril was running, while my right one was dry, my head pounded, and even though i was under the covers I was freezing.

How did I get here anyways? The last thing I remember was falling asleep in Annabeth's lap and slapping Paul.

Annabeth.

Where did we stand now? Were we still enemies? Or friends, or maybe frenemies? What ever it was, I was not ready to confront her today at school- wait. What time was it? I made a grab for my phone next to me.

My phone was a navy blue flip phone. One of the really old ones that had a keypad with numbers on it. I only really used it to have the date and time on the go, or make important calls. Like, '911' important. Though recently I had been using it for quick calls with Grover, or sending Frank or Leo a text every once in a while. (They were one of the only guys I could stand in the school)

Anyways, the phone read 10:32, which meant I was late for school, but for some reason, I didn't seem to care. I always went to school bright and early- even before some teachers got there. It was always to escape the chaos of this house and get to my not-so-safe safe haven.

Amidst all the random thoughts running through my head, I heard the sound of the coor opening. Paul appeared at the threshold. I mentally sighed. He was one of the last people I wanted to see right now. The last probably seeing Misty. Or maybe Mrs. Dodds, the jacked up music teacher.

But, I also noticed how he wasn't dressed up for work, like he seemed to be everyday of his life. He was wearing a yellow sweater with green sweatpants. It actually made him looked relaxed for once in his life.

"Are you finally awake?" he said quietly, but his voice took on a new tone. One I haven't heard before, from anyone but Annabeth on the fateful day.

"Huh?" I said intelligently.

Instead of, you know, telling me what happened and why I'm in my room placed a hand on my forehead.

"Looks like your fever has gone down," he said.

Then the events of last night came rushing back to me. Missing the movie, Annabeth's sweet words, finding out I was sick, Paul coming to the rescue, giving him sass, being carried home, and passing out as soon as I touched my bed.

I didn't know what had changed, though. Just yesterday Misty was calling me a monster, and Paul acted as though I never existed. And now Paul was taking care of me like I was his lifeline.

"And your friend, Annabeth." I perked up at the sound of her name. "I'll give her this one- she's not shy," Paul chuckled a bit, which was rare.

"Why? What did she say?" I wondered what she said to turn Paul around. He was so hard to approach.

"That I have mush for brains," he said casually.

"Mush for brains?" I repeated. "Huh."

"And crazy stew," he listed. "And then later she called us a told us not to be chicken-and-egg dum dums."

"Seems like her." I said.

"Yeah, well I watched her movie last night. It made me do some thinking. About a lot of things," he paused. "I taped it so you could watch."

While he rambled on about the movie, I thought about Annabeth. Her hair was cut and straightened that day, so she had long, blonde hair with side bangs. Her presence was so maternal- if I were to know how that felt- and it let me relax for once.

I lived in the warm moment until Misty popped into the door, bouncing a bowl around in her hands. I was half expecting her to yell at me for being sick and taking all of Paul's time away from her- that's what usually happened. But with what was happening today, I was kind of expecting the unexpected.

"H-here. Chicken soup. For y-you!" The hot bowl jumped from hand to hand until he crossed the room and dropped it onto my bedside table.

"You made it for me?" I said incredulously. This was unbelievable. Sure, I was expecting a little kindness, but this was the first time I had received something from her other than insults.

"Yeah, but it's my first time, so I doubt it's any good."

"Then I don't want it," I said bluntly. If it wasn't good, why shouldI eat it?

"Look, just eat it." She picked it up and handed it to Paul, who bounced it around from hand to hand. It was actually kind of funny to watch him struggle, he still had his straight face. "I'm late for school!" my ginger sister suddenly yelled, and with that she ran out of the room, before popping her head back into the door. Oh, and dad. Promise, you'll get some rest. You've been up all night. Bye!" Her head disappeared around the corner.

"You didn't sleep?" I asked him.

"Oh don't worry about it." He dropped to soup on the table. "I'll leave this here. Wait till it cools down. It's super hot. And don't get out of bed until you feel better," he said.

"Sure." I sighed. My body felt heavy, and I just really wanted to sleep.

He stopped at the door. "Percy?" he said. "I'm going to start coming home earlier. So from now on, I want you to eat dinner at home. Your sister's going to be preparing our meals every night."

"Ok." I was still surprised that he was taking time off of work. He always comes back at ten or eleven. I seriously don't know what he does that late, he's a high school teacher. He closed the door behind him, leaving me lost in my thoughts. It was crazy he actually talked to me. He never did that.

I let my eyes fluttered closed as I replayed my thoughts behind closed eyelids.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~ Back to Annabeth~**

 **~Jk~**

 **~Percy again!~**

A couple hours later, when I could actually move. I picked up the soup, sat on the bean bag in front of my TV with my blanket draped over my shoulders, and I flicked on Annabeth's movie.

I watched the movie. It was really depressing and sad. But the end was nice. There was this one scene, though, that really got me. It went a little something like this.

Annabeth was holding some random lady's hand. The lady was all skinny and weird, and lying in a hospital bed, but I didn't really pay attention.

"Mommy, why did you decide to have me?" Annabeth asked in a small voice. She was such a good actor. I almost didn't' believe that was my Annabeth on the screen.

"I love you Autumn. From the first time I felt you kick in my belly and before, I loved you with all my heart. Autumn, you're my baby I gave. . ." The mother said and I gasped. The words seemed oddly familiar.

" _. . . birth to you because, I wanted you to live." Annabeth spoke softly. "Live for me, live for my sake. Live with all my love, Per-,"_

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud commercial for Pillow Pets. I quickly rewinded to Annabeth talking again.

"It doesn't have to be like this!" Annabeth cried, tears streaking down her red cheeks. The commercial started again and I rewinded.

"It doesn't have to be like this!" I rewinded.

"It doesn't have to be like this!"

I rewinded again, but this time I paused and just stared at her face. It was the first in a long time I remembered how pretty she really was.

Though I wasn't crazy for her straightened hair, I've always thought she was pretty, but looking at her in this scene, maybe it was the stage make up, or the fact that I was really sick and slightly delusional, but she was starting to be seriously beautiful.

And then it hit me.

But it didn't just hit me, it was like a powerful blow to the head.

I like her.

It was only three words, but they felt heavy on my throat. I mean, of course I didn't love her, I was like, fifteen. But judging by the way my heart slowly sped up when I glanced back at her face on the screen, I assumption was correct.

I like Annabeth Chase.

Maybe it was just a crush, maybe this would all blow over in a month, but maybe it was something more. Either way, the statement still stands.

I like Annabeth

It repeated in my head again, and again, it wouldn't stop even if I wanted. it to.

So instead I sat there, wrapped up in my blanket on the floor, staring at her face for who knows how long.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Annabeth~**

 **~For real this time~**

Malcolm ran through the halls of the studio, dragging me behind him. We were _really_ late for Child's Toy.

"Come on, we still have to squeeze in a toothpaste commercial before we got on air!" he said hurriedly. We rushed down the halls, until Malcolm stopped abruptly and I was thrown forward by the momentum.

"What the heck?" I hollered from my place on the floor, covered in magazines. But when I glared in the direction I last saw Malcolm in, I was surprised to see that he wasn't there. See, this is where I'd had it. Why in the world was Malcolm being all wishy-washy with me? Was it the movie, or Percy or. . . was it me? Was I being a bad girlfriend?

The sound of heels clopping down the hall broke me out of my thoughts. Suddenly, the light was blocked out of my view. I looked up to find Lacy looming over me with a concerned look on her face. My heart sped up. Here I was, in a toothpaste costume, on the floor, covered in magazines, with a giant toothbrush in my hand; all this in front of the most famous actress of the decade. It was dizzying; how embarrassed I was.

"Annabeth, is that you? Are you okay? Do you need a hand?" she questioned, holding out her face in front of my face. it gave me a perfect view of her soft-looking, perfectly manicured hands.

"H-Hey! Fancy meeting you here!" I greeting totally non-nonchalantly. Sorry for the double negative, but I really couldn't think or any other word. I have other things on my mind, okay?

"What are you doing on the floor like that?" she asked concernedly.

"I'm uh- I'm fighting cavities!" I pointed to the toothbrush that was a little bit taller than me. "See look, the tube works and everything!" I lunged and a fake line of toothpaste came out of the top of the costume.

Lacy took an uncomfortably deep breath and exhaled. "Anyways, it's too bad we won't be able to do our chat, isn't it?" she said.

I was confused. No one ever told me about this 'chat'. I definitely did not refuse to have a 'chat' with Lacy Lockheart. Who would? So did she just like, cancel me because I'm not good enough? If she did, I'm going to start to have some questions about Lacy's integrity.

"What chat?" I asked suspiciously.

"What, you didn't know? It's fun, I do this little chat column for a magazine, I really wanted you to be my next guest."

"Really you wanted me?" I straightened and more toothpaste came out of my costume.

"Yeah. I asked the editors to call you and set everything up, but your manager told them you were busy on Saturday."

"That's weird. We don't have anything this weekend." Why would Malcolm say that? He's always so spot on with arranging things.

"So does that mean you'll do it?" she asked eagerly.

I gasped. "I am totally honored! Of course I'll do-" I paused. "Wait. Does it matter that I'm just a kid?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way." She smiled.

 **~Linebreak~**

"What?" Juniper gasped. "A chat with Lacy Lockheart?"

"Yeah, I don't mean to brag, but she said she really wanted me to do it." I beamed, but just between you and me, I really did mean to brag. Anyways, I was met with various mutters, loud whispers, and gasps.

That's when the door slid open to reveal none other than Percy Jackson. I smiled.

"Percy Jackson," I sang. It had been three days since he had been to school, I figured he was both sick and mad at me, so I didn't take the time to visit him. "Look who decided to show up after a few days, it's about time."

He just kind of nodded in response.

And then I thought of something I had been wanting to do for a while. I fished through the front pocket of my overalls and pulled out his naked picture I took a couple of months ago. I held the slightly faded polaroid up to his face; he gasped quietly and snatched it up.

"Oh, it's fine. Nobody saw it," I laughed a little at his blatant embarrassment. It had been a while since I had seen any pure, raw, emotions coming from him. "Anyway, I think it's safe to give that back to you."

"You think so?" he said. It had also been a while since I heard his voice. It was usually velvety, and smooth. But today it was kind of gruff. Though, that maybe it was because he was just sick, but whatever it was, I liked it. It was edgy, sharp.

"You realize you can blackmail me anymore," he said, quiet and dangerous.

The voice didn't faze me, though. "Mmhmm," I hummed. After the events of a couple days ago, I learned that Percy was as soft as a teddy bear on the inside. He just had a really, really good way of hiding it. Anyways, I was tired of getting scared everytime he threatened me.

It was time for change.

I felt his dark presence, or whatever the heck radiated off him to make him scary, but I felt like I had a protective barrier around me. I felt the darkness, but it didn't get to me. He stalked away. I thought for a second that he was going to actually take a seat, but instead he kicked my desk across the room.

Ran up next to him and smacked him in the back of the head. "Oh come on, what did that desk ever do to you?" I scolded. But instead, he walked up to my desk again, and kicked it into the wall a couple times.

I breathed; I couldn't let him get to me, if my desk got dented, I'd just call in some people to fix it. I kind of figured he wasn't going to go from devil to angel in one night, or three. In the heat of the kicking and glaring, the picture I took of him floated to the floor. Jason and Nico immediately jumped it.

The kneeled next to it on the floor to take a look. "Hey, what's this picture?" Jason said eagerly. He reached for it. "Is that-"

He was cut off because Percy slammed his foot down over the photo, so hard I could of sworn there was at least a small earthquake. The blonde boy just kind of stood there for a second with his eyes wide. His finger almost got smashed. Percy limped away, dragging the foot with the picture under it as he went.

I thought I oughta give him some time and see what happens.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Percy~**

My least favorite part of the day was recess.

I know what you're thinking. 'What? Recess is middle school?' It's because we were having problems with the mass amount of people in our school with ADHD. I think the only three people in the school without are Annabeth, Grover, and Nancy Bobofit, but no one cares about Nancy. So, principal Zeus had to put in recess to stop all of complaint letters from parents.

Though I'm not totally against recess happening, some kids like it. It was a good way to get all the ADHD out of my system. I didn't usually go out and play with the rest of the guys because I couldn't stand some of them. My usual day of recess was spent laid out in the small grassy space next to the school with Grover.

I guess you could say it was sort of our spot. Only we and Annabeth knew about it. Don't ask me how she figured it out where it was. We would go out there and talk about everything and nothing at the same time until the bell rings for us to inside.

So that brings me here, in our spot. Lying on our backs and staring up at the sun.

"So is it true?" Grover started the conversation. "You and your dad actually started talking."

"I guess," I said. I kinda wanted to point out that he was not my dad, but I also kind of wanted to ask him how he knew about that. But in the end, I settle for neither.

Then Annabeth came whizzing by us, to be honest, I didn't even flinch. She usually took this route to check on me on her way out. It was kind of annoying, but kind of sweet at the same time. Not that I find her sweet, I hate her. Actually, hates kind of a mean word. Let's just say we're, uh. . . what were we anyways?

Grover quickly sat up. "Annabeth, you leaving?" the brunette boy said.

"Yeah, I forgot I had a job today! See ya!" The blonde ran off, accidently dropping her sweater in the process. Grover carefully picked it up and held it up to his face. He was trying to discreetly smell it, but it was really obvious. "See ya," he whispered after her, even though she was long gone.

"You really like her, don't you?" I sat up.

Grover had a mad crush on Annabeth. It all started Valentine's day last year, though I really don't know how. Anyways, it was kind of obvious, the way he acted around her. And, to be honest, I didn't think they matched that well either.

"Yeah, guess it's pretty obvious, right?" He blushed.

"And you're okay with that?" I gestured towards her running into the arms of Mr. Sunglasses, her agent, I think?

"Oh, what? He's her manager, right?" Grover laughed a little.

"I heard they were dating," I said.

"B-b-b-boyfriend?" he stuttered. "But if that's true then. . ."

"Do you even know what the means?" I interrupted.

"What does what mean?"

"It means, you better start worrying about the competition," I said as I watched them drive away.

 **~Linebreak~**

"Oh Annabeth, you're here, glad you made it!" Lacy called me over.

I chat room was quite large, with two sofas, and a coffee table in the corner, a set table with chairs pulled up on either side of it, and one huge window with golden curtains. The rest of the space was used for film equipment. Spotlights, cameras, those big fanny thingies they use in school pictures, and lots more.

"Sorry, I'm a little bit late, but you know how things go." In truth, Malcolm was still acting weird. For one, he slept on the couch again last night, while I was in my room alone. Then, this morning he pretended to be sick, and asked me if I could take the bus. Of course, mother declined his offer and forced him to take me.

"That's ok, don't worry." Suddenly, her face took on a confused look and she glanced around me. "Where's your manager?" The blonde woman asked.

"Well, he's outside in the parking lot. He wanted to wait in the car for some reason." I laughed a little, afraid it came out a little too nervously.

"Well, he got you here,that's what counts," Though she looked a little sad.

"It would have counted more if he got me here on time, but-" I started to joke, but I was cut of by the director tell us to take our seats.

"Let's talk about your mother for second. She's my favorite, if fact, it seems like she has a strong character herself."

"Oh you mean her hair right?" They always hinted at that. It made me start to wonder if they could ever just accept her the way she was. It's always 'Why is she wearing this?', 'Shouldn't she be ashamed to wear that?' Nonetheless, I kept a smile on my face and kept talking. "I don't think I could recognize her without a chipmunk on her head!" I joked and laughed dryly. At this point I just wanted to go home and sleep.

"You know, you say really mature things for a person your age," Lacy said. "Where do suppose you get your knowledge from?" I smiled. Lacy was actually a real person when it came down to it, and I've met a lot of people. During shows like this, people usually asked me about my relationship with Malcolm, and any other rumors going around.

"I guess it's because of reading my mother's books and talking with people like you," I said. The directors 'awed' for effect.

We continued going back and forth like that. Until we neared the end of the chat.

"I must say Annabeth, it's been real fun talking to you." I smile at her, but this time it's a real, genuine smile. "But, before we wrap up, I'd like to ask you about your agent."

My good mood dropped immediately. It's always Malcolm. But again, I put on a smile and went on my way. "Sure, what about him?"

"Well, he's actually kind of a mystery of the business. No one really knows his connection to you. There's a rumor that he's your live-in boyfriend, but there's no truth to that, right?" Lacy said eagerly.

"Oh, that?" I bit the inside of my cheek. "It's completely true." Lacy looked taken aback, and honestly, I kind of felt smug about it, I don't really know why.

"Actually," I said, figuring that if we got this far, I might as well tell the full truth. "He was a bum I picked off the street."

"W-wha. . ." she trailed off.

"It goes like this, I was out one day a couple of years ago and I saw him on a curb. He looked really sad, but cute at the same time. Like a stray dog. Anyways, he was really skinny and scruffy and stuff, but I could tell that all he needed was a little bit of TLC."

Lacy took a deep breath in and recovered from the blow. " Okay, I'm still not getting this, when you say a bum . . ."

"Like a homeless person." I finished for her.

"When I found him, he'd been down on luck after being dumped by his really awful, heartless ex-girlfriend." I sighed. It was really a sad story, and I knew I shouldn't have been be saying that, what with me knowing that there was a guy typing everything I said onto a computer, but the public would find out sometime, why not have it be now? "He never got over it," I continued. " She kicked him to the curb and that's where he stayed."

Some women can be so cruel.

 **~Linebreak~**

After the interview was over, the cameramen saw me off and I headed back down the parking lot. When I got there, there was no sign of Malcolm.

I figured. He must have really not wanted me to go. He even pretended to be sick this morning. I wondered why. Was it me? Or maybe . . . Lacy? Either way, I didn't have time to think right then. I just wanted to get back home. There had been so many things on my plate recently, I just wanted to sleep. So I hopped onto the hood of the car and pulled my pager out of my pocket and hit the button. The humming coming from the small plastic machine told me it worked.

Usually, though, Malcolm would buzz back, telling me he was on his way, but this time, he wasn't. The slid the pager back into my purse and snapped it closed.

I didn't get it. Her always disappeared whenever I was around Lacy. He had been strange since the movie . . . with Lacy. And don't forget Lacy had been weird recently too. She was always asking about him. And I thought it was weird she asked me to do the chat in the first place. She could have gotten somebody much bigger than me.

And then it came to me. She might be trying to steal my boyfriend.

I quickly hopped off the car. I was going to find him if it was the last thing I did.

I searched all over town, buzzed him three times, and called his name at least seven times. Until I came up to this alley.

He was with Lacy, with his back turned and, his sunglasses shattered on the floor, I gasped.

"Malcolm," Lacy said.

 **Okay. I know. Longgggggggggg awaited. It;s just because there was a lot of things on my plate, okay? I promise that I'll post more frequently. I WILL NOT discontinue this story, ever. It's just not happening. I'm gonna finish it even if it means the death of me.**

 **As for the characters, trust me, they're going to get back in character in a couple of chapters, and the joking, teasing Percabeth will be back.**

 **So, I'd really like to know what you think, what I should fix, so drop a review?**

 **Otherwise, follow and give my fanfiction a big ol' heart!**

 **Stay cool,**

 **-TFN**


	7. Innocence

**Heeeyyyyyy.**

 **Please don't throw your knives and other dangerous weapons.**

 **Yeah, I'm a terrible person.**

 **I am soooo sorry I haven't updated for like two months. I was initially going to just take a quick break because of the stress of school and finals and all the jazz, and then I just kind of . . . forgot. I'm so sorry!**

 **But I promise, I will finish this story! I will not give up on it no matter what! And you guys just know that I'll always be here, you just have to wait for me. Unless I die, in that case, I wouldn't be updating anymore.**

 **But I'm alive!**

 **Sort of.**

 **It's finals, you don't even know.**

 **And let me just say I'm sooooooooo thankful for anyone who is reading this chapter because that means you waited for me, even though this long hiatus and I love you so much and I swear you make my day every single day!**

 **Anyways, things have changed. It's Winter Break!. And that's enough of me.**

 **So reviews.**

 **Nico Di Awesome said: I don't even care about the ending**

 **I am still dancing around because Percy likes Annabeth!**

 **This was the best chapter!**

 **Forget, what I said about the last chapter**

 **This one is the good one**

 **I say: Thank you so much! It really took me a long time to do this, so thanks for your support, even after the hiatus!**

 **And I got so much more after the hiatus, it's just that I'm sort of writing this in the two hour slot I get with this computer, so I have to hurry.**

 **So without further adieu, the chapter!**

 ** _Previously on Child's Toy:_**

 _"_ _Malcolm," -Lacy_

 _"_ _I like Annabeth Chase." -Percy_

 _"_ _She might be trying to steal my man." -Annabeth_

 **Chapter 7: Innocence**

I quickly stood between the two adults, arms outstretched, determined to keep her wanting hands off of my man.

"This isn't what this looks . . . right?" Lacy asked, gesturing between Malcolm and I.

"You should know me better than that," Malcolm said bitterly.

"Wait, you guys know each other from somewhere?" I let my arms drop, tired of holding them up.

"High school. Malcolm was my boyfriend," Her words stabbed at me like a knife in the stomach, giving me an empty feeling.

I mean, I'm a teenager. What do I have to offer Malcolm, why does he stay with me? More importantly, this, whatever we have, is it even real? For all I know he could still have feelings for Lacy. I turned around, staring into Malcolm's blue eyes for what seemed like forever.

"No, we're over. She broke up with me," Malcolm held his hands up in surrender.

"No, you got this all wrong, I never meant to-" Lacy started.

"Lacy, there you are!" I recognized Lacy's manager as he rounded the corner into our alley. His strode briskly up to Lacy and grabbed her arm. "I brought the car around."

"We're talking!" Lacy struggled from his grip. It was no use, he only pulled harder.

"Have you forgotten who you are? They'll eat you alive!" It was just then I realized that I was indeed, Annabeth Chase. _The_ Annabeth Chase.

In an alley.

With a dead end.

And the single most popular woman on the planet. .

I think I have the whole right to be scared. I counted down in my head.

5 . . . . "Hey, isn't that Lacy Lockhart?" I heard someone call out, my nightmare came true.

It was the fans.

4 . . . . "And isn't that Annabeth Chase too?" someone else called.

3\. . . . One person took a step into the alleyway.

I felt people slam into me as the alley was overtaken by what felt like hundreds of people. I felt large hands wrap around under my knees, and Malcolm's grunt as he lifted me up. I was enclosed in a familiar warmth and I hid my head in neck. The muffled screams of all the people around me filled my ears.

Among them, a voice I thought I trusted up until now, "Malcolm, Malcolm call me!"

And then there was a long, hollow silence.

 **~Linebreak~**

I was practically thrown into the backseat of the car as we sped away from the only growing crowd of fans. Daring ones pressed up against our windows, snapping pictures, tugging on the doors, trying to hop on the car. The screams were distant sounds in my ears, the people outside only transparent shadows behind my eyes. The fact that this was making the headlines in at least four magazines tomorrow suddenly seemed like a distant memory.

I stared at Malcolm's back, and almost laughed at how much things have changed. Yesterday, I trusted this man with my life, hell, five minutes ago I trusted this man with my everything. My career, my status, my family. My heart.

And then I was shocked.

Because it didn't hurt.

Five minutes ago, I thought there would never be a day that Malcolm would leave me, if I had known today was the day, I probably wouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning. But today is that day.

And it doesn't hurt.

I guess somewhere in the back of my head I knew that a relationship between a fourteen year old girl and a twenty-three year old man would never work. I guess age isn't just a number. And the fact that Malcolm isn't a pedophile.

Suddenly, everything became a bit clearer.

And in turn, the world became a bit duller.

I guess I was living in a sort of fantasy this whole time, because this was the real world. I'm not a kid anymore, and maybe it just took this to realize that. I need to think of things like school, and my career, not some guy I never even had a chance with.

It was time to go home.

 **~Linebreak~**

As soon as we get home, Malcolm and I have a silent and mutual communication of the fact that we need to talk. We take it to his room. It actually silently humored me, however, that we still understood we each other as much as we do. Though, I guess we never understood each other judging by the fact that we been "together" throughout my whole acting career, and he never once thought to tell me that his ex-girlfriend was Lacy Lockhart, who kicked him to the curb, and potentially wants to take him away from me.

Even though I guess she has already taken him away.

As soon as we get to his room, I sit on his bed out of pure habit. Even though I figure it would only be polite of me to sit at the foot of the bed, I don't get off when Malcolm has already taken a seat at the foot of the bed. He dropped his head.

It's funny, because twenty minutes ago, I didn't care about being polite to him.

We were just us. No formalities.

"So I guess I figured out why you pull a disappearing act whenever Lacy's here," I laughed dryly.

"I didn't think it would end like this."

"So you thought if you just kept things a secret long enough-"

"No!" he interrupted. "Well, yes, sort of, but that isn't the point. It was ancient history."

"Really? Because Lacy didn't seem to think so."

He crawls over to me and cradles my jaw with one of his hands. "You have nothing to worry about. Annabeth, you are the most important person in the world to me."

"Yeah, everything will be okay," I lied between my teeth. He engulfed me in one of the most uncomfortable hugs I've ever experienced and left the room. I took it as my cue to leave too, and I slowly made my way towards the door, hoping not to catch up to Malcolm and have another uncomfortable encounter.

On my way out, I clipped my shoulder on his bookshelf, and knocked off a box. It fell, spilling it's contents onto the the floor. I groaned, and kneeled down to pick up what had to be thousands of pieces of paper. As I picked some of it up, I began to notice one thing they all had in common.

They were magazines.

All with Lacy's face on the headlines.

I quickly picked up the rest of Malcolm's little "collection" and stuffed it back into the bookshelf. What the hell? I thought that he said they were through, I thought he didn't love her anymore! Because I'm pretty sure you don't just blatantly ignore someone you still have feelings for.

Most important person in his life?

Give me a break.

 **~Linebreak~**

I guess you could say that I wasn't thrilled to go to school the next day. Nevertheless, I was stuck in this purgatory of classroom, learning things I already know.

And it didn't really help that suddenly Percy and Grover wanted to know all about Malcolm. Grover had asked me exactly twenty-seven questions-and counting-about 'How Malcolm was doing,' 'What was our relationship like,' and so on and so on. Percy, however, expressed his curiosity in a different. He's the type that lets people answer the questions for him. Though he acted like he really couldn't care less, I saw the glances he shot towards us ever so often.

"So how's Malcolm?" Grover pestered me yet again.

"Grover, I think this is about the third time you asked that question." I sighed. I was so tired from last night's events. And the all-nighter I pulled was really helping my situation.

"Well, I was just wondering what kind of person he is, you know, if he's a good guy and all," he countered.

"Sure, he's the best boyfriend ever," I replied for what seemed like the fifth time.

"I see."

I sighed, louder this time. "But now his ex wants him back, it's complicated." All small sound came from Percy, I turn my head slowly, and what smart remark could he possibly have now?

"No, I was laughing." he said. "That guy's not your boyfriend. You need to stop kidding yourself."

The weird thing was, I used to find Percy's negative perception of the world annoying, and terrible, but ever since last night, everything has shifted just a little. So when he told me the cold, hard, truth, I felt a little surprised. Because I _was_ kidding myself all this time, thinking I could ever give Malcolm what he wants.

"Kidding myself." I repeated.

"You're a teenage girl. There's no way he thinks of you as a woman. You're his pretend girlfriend. His ex if the real one." His words reverberated in my head. _Fake. Fake. Fake._

And I don't want to believe it.

I know it's true but I can't accept it. It would mean the all this time I've just been an idiot, letting some guy toy with my heart. It would mean that all those times I thought I was in love, in _real_ love, were nothing but an act, and I had no idea I was on center stage.

"My love life isn't any of your business," I said softly before leaving.

I stood outside, the smooth, wooden door feeling cool on my back. I mean, it is true that I am the most important person in Malcolm's life. Without me, he'd still be a bum. But, then again, it wouldn't be long until Lacy comes back. If he really cherished me, why would he put me through this?

He knew that one day Lacy would come back. He knew that if he became the manager for one of the most famous people on Earth, he would sometime meet up with Lacy again. What was the point of letting on a five year old that this was it for her?

For once, I could really say that I didn't know.

That day I knew that Malcolm would be waiting for me with his car to take me home, like always, but I decided to walk. I need the thinking time anyways.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Malcolm's PoV~**

So I really messed up, didn't I?

Of course I was never serious about Annabeth, and of course I never meant to let her on. It's just that, I'm nothing without her, and it almost seems like she's nothing without me. And if pretending to be her boyfriend for nine years keep that balance between us, then I just have to do it.

But then there's Lacy.

She's a woman, not a girl, but she's also the same woman that kicked me out all those years ago. She's the same woman that I gave up my everything for, only to have it not work out, just like everything else in my life is going for me right now.

She still has feelings for me, and, as much as I don't want to admit it, I sure as hell still have feelings for her. In any other world, it would be that easy, we have feeling for each other; we get together, but what about Annabeth? She's the only one that, despite our relationship being built almost entirely on lies, never stopped giving me a chance.

Which is why I have to pick her up today.

I do it every day, but this time is special, because I could, just as easily, drive over to Lacy's place, she slipped me her address and number during our absolutely wonderful encounter the other day.

And I need to work this out.

With both of them.

As soon as I arrive at the school, the bell rings and the students begin to pour out of the building. I wait there for about five minutes, as the students slowly start to trickle out, the whispered conversations that have as they pass me are evident.

"I think I saw Annabeth leave out of the back door." I turn around to find those two kids, the rebel and the goody boy. I think their names are Gerald and Percy?

"You're… um" I tried to recall the smaller one's name. "Garfield, right?"

"Grover." That was it.

"You got stood up." It was that Percy child, the evil one.

"Too bad," I laughed dryly. "I guess she doesn't like me anymore." I stepped back into my car, thoroughly disappointed. So she just left without telling me? I honestly didn't think she was still that mad. I heard the car doors click open and shut, and I glanced in my rear view mirror to find that George kid in the back seat.

"What the- get out of my car!" I exclaimed, glancing into the passenger seat to find Percy occupying it, his feet relaxed on the dashboard.

"I think you and me need to have a talk," he said slowly.

"Oh, okay," I said, nervous. One wrong step and this could be considered abduction.

So we drive off and I'm beginning to think I need to consult Annabeth about her choices of friends.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Percy's PoV~**

When we arrived at the small, out of the way Starbucks, the old guy bought me a coffee and Grover a smoothie. We sat there in awkward silence for what seemed like forever.

"So. . ." Mr. Sunglasses prompted.

"At least take off those sunglasses before we start." I said. "I want to see your face when I'm talking. And don't think that just because we're kids you can feed us some BS about how their stuck to your face or something because we won't but it." The remark meant to come out as only slightly harsh, but I just started escalating.

"These kids," he doesn't think I hear him mutter. But, he took the glasses off, nevertheless. "Is that better?" he gave a fake smile.

"A little bit," I comment

"So is it really true that your Annabeth's boyfriend like she says?" Grover asks. I don't even know why that question is necessary. Or course he's not. Rather, of course Grover would ask that question since he's not crazy about Annabeth.

But, I guess by the same logic, I am too.

"Yup, that's right."

Lies.

"And tell us, is it serious?" I ask, against my better judgement. I only have so much time with this guy and here I am, asking him about his non-existent relationship.

"Sorry, what?" he asks.

"I'm just asking you if it's serious," I holding my hands up in the air, slightly grinning, and I can tell it's getting to him. "Because if it is, that would make you a child molester, doesn't it, sicko"

"As Percy was _trying_ to say," Grover shot me a look. "How about you tell us your story. How did this whole thing start?"

Except I don't want to know how it starts.

I just want to know how it ends.

More specifically, if it ends with my Annabeth heartbroken.

"Well," Mr. Sunglasses sighs. "She was five."

"Five?" I interrupted; Annabeth was five years old when this guy started using her? It was unbelievable.

"Maybe six," He throws his hands up in surrender. Like that makes it any less terrible.

"Continue," Grover adds quite forcefully.

"Okay so one day, she and her mother were talking a walk through the city."

 **~FLASHBACK~**

 **~Nine Years Ago~**

 _Winter was just ending, the flowers would be springing back to life, the grass would be melting off its white, frost-like cocoon, it would be careening the world into a new age of vibrant blues, greens, reds, and pinks._

 _Except they weren't, because this was New York._

 _Among the civilians, young Annabeth Chase, a particularly special girl, was in the intricate streets of Manhattan with her mother._

 _"_ _Mama, guess what happened in school today?" Annabeth asked excitedly._

 _"_ _What happened, honey?" Susan Chase answered, knowing that Annabeth had told this story about eight other times that day._

 _"_ _The teacher gave me_ another _gold star in class today! She said that if I keep this up, I might be able to become a real star! Do you think so, Mama?"_

 _Annabeth's eye caught something. A group of men seated on the curb, sharing the last embers of a fire, forgotten in the cool winds of New York._

 _A particular one intrigued her. The only one who wasn't conversing solemnly with the other men, the one only one who wasn't trying in vain to warm up morsels of food on the last embers of the forgotten fire, in fact, only one who wasn't doing anything at all._

 _As the mother-daughter duo made their way back home, young Annabeth couldn't help but wonder over to the strange men on the curb. When they finally returned, Annabeth went to sleep with thoughts coursing through her young mind._

 _The next day, Annabeth heads out into the city, set on walking to school. She encounters the strange men yet again, but this time, Annabeth steered herself into a nearby deli. She pulled out the last of her share of the paycheck she got that week on_ Child's Toy. _She left them deli, half of a foot long sandwich in her hand and the adults in awe that a five-year-old girl just bought a sandwich with a credit card._

 _She left the store and turned the curb to find the man alone. No jolly but solemn men in circles around him, no last embers of a burnt out fire to be warmed by, no tattered blanket, on ripped jackets, on torn, baggy jeans surrounding him. Just the one man. Cold, alone, tired, and hungry by the look of his gaunt, hollow-cheeked face._

 _Just the man, and there he sat._

 _Annabeth slowly approached the man on the curb._

 _"_ _Here." Annabeth held out the six-inch sandwich to the man._

 _And the man pointed to himself, questioning._

 _"_ _Yes."_

 _The man took the sandwich, and as he devoured it quickly, Annabeth gingerly sat herself down next to him on the cracked curb._

 _"_ _Is it good?" she asked simply after a while of eating. The man nodded eagerly. Annabeth supposed she should have gotten him a healthier option, but it didn't matter now._

 _"_ _Are you always hungry like this?" She asked. The man looked at her and nodded again, slowly._

 _"That's sad." And again, the man nodded._

 _"_ _What's your name?"_

 _"_ _Malcolm." It was the first word the man uttered to her, his voice low, gravelly, and unused._

 _"_ _You should really be going." Annabeth suggested._

 _"_ _Where?"_

 _"_ _Home."_

 _"_ _I have no home."_

 _The four words perplexed Annabeth beyond anything. If there was no home, where was his mother? Where were his home-cooked meals? Where was his Christmas by the light of the fire?_

 _Where was the love?_

 _"_ _No home. . ." Annabeth repeated under her breath. "Then come with me."_

 _"_ _Where?" The man asked again._

 _"_ _Home."_

 _Annabeth stood up, as the man took his last bites of the sandwich, she took his large, skinny hand in her small, plump one and headed back in the direction of home, the cold winds of New York wrapping around her and the bright orange street lights engulfing her sense of sight._

 _She still pondered the thought of no home. Would it have been anything like what her mother had? No boyfriend, no husband, no love. Of course, Annabeth loved her very much, but was that enough. Could Annabeth, with her rare tantrums, make up for everything that her mother did not have?_

 _She didn't want that._

 _"_ _You should be my boyfriend." Annabeth blurted out to the man she pulled along. He raised his eyebrows. "Or my manager, or both. You would get money and love. We could be happy."_

 _The man thought of it. Sure, he could do with money to get back on his feet, but love? Could he ever love again after what happened? After what he was put through? Could he repeat the last two years of his life again?_

 _When they reached the grand gates to the Chase mansion, the man stopped._

 _"_ _What is this?" He pointed to the huge house, the fountain in front, he pointed to everything they have. Everything he wished he had._

 _Everything he didn't have._

 _"_ _This?" the young Annabeth smiled. "This is home."_

 **END OF FLASHBACK**

 **~Percy's PoV~**

"So, I kind of owe her everything" Malcolm said. "Without her, I'd never be the man I am today. That why I do it. I decided that she deserved. Even if she was that young, and she felt that strongly about me, I decided that I owed it to her to take those feeling seriously. And in a way, no one has stuck by me as long as she has.

"And that the long as short of it, really. Annabeth hired me to be her boyfriend and manager. So, no matter how it looks, I play my part for as long as it makes her happy."

That's BS

.

It seems like in her time of need, no one truly thinks about her feeling. It's always them trying to surround her in her in their own little nonsensical world. And then when she's finally exposed to the truth, it breaks her heart.

How dare they treat my Annabeth like that?

"I get it." I stood up abruptly.

"Wait, get what? Because I'm not sure I got any of it." Grover said.

I sifted through my wallet, throwing a couple dollars on the table.

"No, I'll take care of the bill." Mr. Sunglasses insisted.

"Forget it." I cut his off. "I don't want your dirty money."

He sighed.

"Sicko." I kept at it. "Think I don't know what you're up to? She's just a kid with a silly crush. So you figure you'll play along and collect your money until she outgrows it, right? It's all just a big game to you."

"Uh, wait no. Wait a second; you've got it all wrong. At least let me explain, I-"

"I've heard enough." I cut him off. "You shouldn't mess with kids' heads like that. Trust me, I should know."

I walked out, not even checking to see if Grover was following me.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Annabeth's PoV~**

I walked onto the set of Child's Toy late that day. It was because I took a train and lost my way.

I quietly sat in my seat, not trying to be discreet, but also keen to not be noticed. But of course, to my luck, Zach addressed me immediately.

"You know, if this were a really school, you'd probably be suspended by now." I chuckled a little bit.

"So what happened, did you sleep in our something?" Zach leaned forward on his desk, even though we were going way off script and he wasn't supposed to address me informally on the show, I really liked that Zach, despite his utter goofiness, was one of the my best friends. He was one of the people who I knew only had my best interests in mind.

"Um, no." I scrambled for an excuse; I really didn't want the fight between Malcolm and I to go public. "I would have gotten here sooner, but my train had a flat."

"Oh yeah, a flat tire." he smiled sarcastically. "Except trains don't have tires."

Cue the fake laugh track.

"Ok, you caught me, but I really did come on a train."

"What? You didn't get a ride from your boyfriend as usual?" Zach's face contorted into one of concern. "What's wrong, trouble in paradise?"

If there had been any blush on my cheeks at all, it was gone now. I didn't want this spread.

I laughed, and that was probably the best acting I've ever done. "We can't be attached at the hip _all_ the time. I just needed to be not-so-close for a while so I could think about a few things." Hopefully that worked.

Then Zach cracked another joke about his rather large two front teeth and we all laughed. That is, everyone except for me. I glanced over to find Malcolm, slumped against the wall, watching, and I felt a strange sense of dread fill my body.

I am not going home with him.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Malcolm's PoV~**

Today has not been a good day for me.

I let those two kids step all over me, Lacy still hasn't contacted me, and Annabeth has been completely avoiding me. In fact, right after Child's Toy, she hopped on a train and left me.

 _Again._

"I'm home!" I called to what felt like nobody as I walked through the door.

Just then, Annabeth walked by, carrying a basket full of laundry. She walked quickly, and I couldn't distinguish if she was trying hard not to acknowledge me, or if she just really didn't care.

This was enough.

I pulled out the small pager and clicked the button. She vibrated a little before turning around.

"You rang?"

"I did."

"What's up?" she said after an awkward pause.

"I went to pick you up after school today and you weren't there."

"I decided to take the train, don't worry about it." She turned around and started walking away.

"But, it's my job to get you to the studio on time!"

She suddenly whipped around, her curls going everywhere. "Well, you haven't been doing very much of your job at all!" she shouted.

"I-" I didn't know what to say.

"You are paid to paid to manage me. Not love me," she said slowly, dangerously. "You know what, maybe, I should get a new manager." She pondered the thought coldly.

"You won't have to do that . . . ma'am" I added slowly.

"You better hope I don't. " She stepped forward and ripped the pager out of my hand. "But, I will be taking this."

My breath caught a little.

"Maybe I'll ride with you next time." she said quietly. "But not tomorrow"

"Why?"

"I don't have to work tomorrow; we're going on a social studies field trip. I'll get a ride with Juniper. She lives close enough."

"Alright, I see."

"Bye."

I solemnly made my way back to my room. As soon as I walked in a plopped down on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I started working my tie off, throwing it onto my desk and running my hands through my hair. I unbuttoned the first two button of my dress shirt and shrugged off my suit coat.

After I was certain I looked like a mess, I glanced at the phone on my desk. All I could think about were Lacy's repeated commands.

 _Call me._

She didn't even give me her number.

I missed her blonde hair that felt as like and silky as spider webs. I missed her slender body frame. I missed her almost purple eyes. I missed the way she laughed. I missed the way she came to me to cry. I missed the nights she would spend next to me. I missed the way she would pretend she didn't care, even though she _really_ did. I missed the way she would come to me, asking for advice. I missed the way she would make faces on my sandwiches with ketchup and mustard for me to go to work.

I missed _her_.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Annabeth's PoV~**

That night I thought a lot.

That morning, I got ready for the field trip.

That afternoon, we boarded the busses.

The same afternoon that I lost my first kiss.

 **~Linebreak~**

"Percy," I sang. It was one thing that Percy was afraid of heights. It was another thing that we were going to the observation deck of the Empire State Building for our field trip.

"Don't say anything." he said through clenched teeth. He was scared.

I faked shock, my hand on my heart. "Me? Say anything? I was just going to say that we were going to be a mile in the air, it's quite interesting, isn't it?"

"Shut up."

"I bet you're so excited."

"Stop."

"Just think of it the whole entire city, right in front of us! Exactly 1,253 feet in the air! What a rush!"

He suddenly stopped.

"So have you talked to that guy yet?" I was taken aback at the sudden change of subject. And what guy did he mean? Malcolm?. I laughed nervously. "What guy? What are you talking about?"

"Never mind."

He kept walking forward. I stopped, staring at his back as his figure became smaller and smaller until it was eaten up by the crowd. My heart pounded. It wasn't until I heard faint laughing behind me when I snapped out of it. I turned around and it was the girls. Thalia, Juniper, and Piper. I caught up with them.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Juniper said she likes someone in our class, but she won't tell who." Piper laughed, I didn't.

She's going to make a fool of herself.

"No she isn't." It came out by accident, the truth.

"What do you mean?" Juniper had stopped smiling by now.

"You're not in love." At this point, I'm not really sure that love exists anymore.

"Annabeth, what are you saying? Juniper asked.

"I'm saying that you're young and stupid. You don't _like_ anyone. You just probably think he's a nice guy. Don't let your heart fool you, or you'll break it." Thalia glared at me.

"You didn't have to go that far, _Annie."_

I watched as they walked away Thalia and Piper with their arms around Juniper, who looked like she was about to cry.

When did I become like this?

My eyes shifted a little bit to the right. Percy was standing there, looking at me. I tried to communicate my panic to him. I keep losing things. Malcolm, my friends, some of my fan base because of the bad acting I'd done on Child's Toy. At least I still had Percy.

He stopped walking, and I don't know what made him look so welcoming, but I sped up, stopping next to him when he put an arm around my shoulder and he kept walking.

 **~Linebreak~**

The class boarded the elevator in small groups Piper, Thalia, Juniper, and a couple others went up by themselves. Percy and I somehow got an elevator with just the two of us.

"Isn't this fun? We're just going up and up and-" Percy's face was literally blue. He looked sick. I stepped away from him, not wanting to be in the line of fire if he puked, and we rode the rest of the way in silence.

 **~Linebreak~**

The observation deck was absolutely beautiful. I think I would see all of New York from here, if that was possible. I sat on one of the benches with Percy, silent next to me.

The sun burst through the large window, I basked in the light, watching the small civilians as men dressed in suits bustled along the sidewalks, teenagers cruised on skateboards, and kids ran place where they really shouldn't be playing.

"This sucks." Percy muttered, probably trying to seem calm, but I could see his white knuckles on the arm rest.

"I think it's really beautiful." I said wistfully. "It makes me feel . . . tiny."

Percy turned his head.

"Standing at a place like this; it really puts all your problems in perspective, you know? It's like you can how small there are." I smiled. "We're all really tiny and the world in really big, but we get so caught up in our little problems sometimes, that we miss the big picture."

I turned my head, and Percy looked at me. I smiled, and for once, he smiled too. Then I got a brilliant idea.

"Percy, you're afraid of heights, right?"

"You think?"

"Haha, very funny." I fished around in my purse and brought out three dollars. I smiled and ran for the vending machines. There was one left, but I bought the small can of lemonade and brought it back to our little sanctuary.

But then I tripped.

And I spilled lemonade all over Percy's head.

"Oh my gods, I'm so sorry." I pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his face. "I bought it for you, I mean I know you're uncomfortable able, but I thought I'd make you feel better, if you drank it."

He looked at me, before snapping his eyes closed again. "It's in my eyes."

"Oh great, I made you blind. I'm so clumsy." I chided myself. "We should probably go get your face washed, before you really do go blind."

He didn't reply and I got a little closer, inspecting his hair, it was sticky.

"Come let's go."

And then he lifted his head and his lips landed on mine.

 **And that's a wrap, folks! Loving the cliffhanger, eh?**

 **So anyways, thank you for reading and all that jazz!**

 **Follow your dreams!**

 **-TFN**


	8. To Have Someone There

**Hello.**

 **So, there was a kiss, which was unexpected, but that's okay. I'm back. That's pretty much all I have to say, so let's get to the story! And you might be wondering why there is no review section but that's because I'm writing this before I actually post the last chapter because I'm going somewhere for a couple of weeks and I don't wantanother hiatus on my hands. Anyways, this is a I had to post this again. My fanfiction is being a weird and not letting me post chapters without going all code-y on my.**

 _ **Previously on Child's Toy:**_

" _And then he lifted up his head and his lips landed on mine."_

 **Chapter 8: To Have Someone There**

 **Annabeth's PoV**

What would you do in my situation? Would you push him away? Would you run? Would you kiss back? I would have probably thought of a good solution if the rational part of my brain had been functioning at the time.

Percy Jackson is kissing me.

And I'm not really sure I'm enjoying it or not.

On one hand, it's exhilarating, on the other hand it's terrifying. And I can't help but think that this isn't the way I should lose my first kiss.

I feel the small cup topple off of his head and into my lap. My handkerchief fell out of my hand.

It had felt like about three hours before my senses slowly started to return to me. My eyes were wide open and staring at Percy's shut eyes. Eyelashes brushed his cheekbones and his hair fell across his forehead, tickling my nose. My hand found his shirt, balling the fabric in my hands, closing my eyes tighter, tighter, until purple spots danced around behind my eyelids.

He pulled away slightly, his sea-foam orbs boring into mine. I felt dizzy- like I could topple over at a breath- but I held his gaze. Thick, heavy silence stretched between us, my mind raced at a million miles per second, but all that could that could come out between breaths was:

"What . . . was that?"

"I- I don't really. . . what?" Percy stuttered.

"What do you mean 'you don't really know'? That was my first kiss!"

He crossed his arms, scoffing. "With a twenty-year-old boyfriend, I'd think that this wasn't a big deal."

That's when I started to get mad. How could he pretend he knew _anything_ about me? "Well, maybe my twenty-year-old boyfriend wanted me to save my first kiss for when I'm older, for someone _special_! In fact, maybe my twenty-year-old and I aren't even _dating_ anymore! Ever think about that?"

He slumped a little. "Oh." And that's all he could say. ' _Oh'_

"Yeah, ' _oh'_ is right."

"Annabeth, I'm-" I help up my hand.

"Don't even. All I've ever done is help you. I gave up time for you. I gave up effort for you. I gave up some of my _heart_ for you. And now I'm done. We're- whatever this is- it's done, okay?"

"Okay."

I was slightly taken back by the small response, but all the same, I whipped around and exited the observation deck, feeling my walls go back up.

 **~Linebreak~**

It took me an hour or two to arrive back home. I went straight up to my room, feeling blush rushing in my ears. I crashed down of my bed, clutching a pillow in my arms.

After I was so worried about Malcolm and Lacy going behind by back, I thought Percy understood me. I mean, who else do I know could relate to feeling lonely? I was even feeling lonely about him being so high in the air, and in my moment of kindness he took advantage of me.

A hot tear escaped between my closed eyelids, streaming down the side of my head and getting lost in my hair. I closed them tighter. Sobs racked my body, and I crushed the pillow over my face.

Then there was a knock and Malcolm's muffled voice came through the door.

"Annabeth."

I squeezed the pillow harder.

"Are you in there? I looked everywhere for you on the observation decks; I didn't realize there were two different ones. I couldn't find you."

I imagined stuffing pouring out of the seams of the pillow.

"I guess we just missed each other." His voice was punctuated by the hushed sound of footsteps emanating from the hall, growing fainter and fainter.

I sighed and turned over, the heavy feeling of sleep washing over me. I fought it, wanting to vent for longer; I didn't know that tomorrow, after everything that would happen, I would really be needing it.

Still, I felt it take over my body, weighing me down until the world faded to black, and my sense of time began to degenerate.

 **~Linebreak~**

I woke up late, squinting my eyes at the sunshine streaming in through the windows, small particles of dust dancing in the light. I rubbed sleep out of my eyes, yawning.

I sat up, glancing down, I frowned on my wrinkles day clothes. The memories came flooding back to me then, everything from the field trip to Juniper to the _kiss_ to Malcolm. Frowning, I got up, heading to the shower to start yet another terrible day.

I slid on a too-big-for-me sweatshirt and sweatpants, giving myself a once-over in the mirror, I pulled a brush through my unkempt hair twice and left for school.

In one word, school was infuriating.

I arrived there-not feeling like starting a commotion- I sat down and pulled out a book, and tried to read though my mind wasn't quite present. I kept having to go back and read a paragraph over again and again. It wasn't long until Percy entered the scene.

He was wearing a snapback, a strange occurrence, but it looked strangely good on him. I found glancing at him a couple of times when no one was looking.

"Hey Percy, is it true that your first kiss was in kindergarten?" It was rumor going around since the kiss, and I absolutely hated it, even though I knew it isn't true. It _can't_ be true.

"Yeah, I did." Percy's voice seemed to cut through my resolve. My head almost instinctively snapped up, locking my gaze on him. He looked at me and gulped. "I- I took this girl out into the courtyard and kissed her."

I kept my eyes trained on him; he glanced at me for a second before turning back to whoever asked the stupid question.

"Yeah, I was there- I saw it!" some other guy chimed in. I let my gaze fall back to my book; I felt nauseous. How could he do that to someone?

"But," he added. "it didn't mean anything."

Then I snapped. I totally _utterly_ snapped.

"How can you talk about it like it means nothing!?" I yelled, digging my fingernails into the pages of the book. I felt them rip up the stress. "That girl still probably feels used!"

He looked at me, for a second I could have sworn I saw hurt in his eyes. Even if it was there I ignored it, focussing on the dark, cold look his eyes took over now.

"Yeah, right. I bet she doesn't even remember it," he retorted coolly.

" And I bet you don't even remember her name. See? You never realize that maybe people don't want you!" I threw my arms up into the air, letting my book fall to the floor with a heavy thunk. "Have you ever thought about anyone else when you take things for yourself?"

"Yes, I have."

"Well obviously you haven't. You do thing to people, thinking they'll be fine with it, when in reality you leave them feeling crappier and lonelier than before you met them."

"Like you have the right to feel lonely."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," He stood up. "You have a beautiful family, a whole bus full of friends, and a number of fans I bet you can't even count up to! You have everything, and you still want more!"

"You don't know me," I snarled.

"Really? Try me."

"Well if you did, then you'd know that my 'beautiful family' is falling apart, half of my 'bus full of friends' think I'm a snobby rich kid, and if you _cared_ enough to even read the magazines about me, you'd find out that I'm not doing so hot in the show biz right about now!" I gestured wildly, knotting my hands in my hair. "So, yes maybe I do have a little right to be lonely, especially now when I have nobody. Not everyone can be a lone wolf, Percy!"

His face softened. "You have me," he offered.

"No I don't. If I did, maybe we wouldn't be in this situation. Maybe I'd be talking to you right now. Maybe I wouldn't I wouldn't feel like this. Maybe I wouldn't have woken up with dried tears on my cheeks this morning. Maybe you wouldn't have kissed me."

"You really think I kissed you just because I could?"

"I don't know, why _did_ you kiss me, Percy?"

"Because-"

The bell rang and the teacher, walked in, starting class and at the same time cutting off the one answer I really needed.

 **~Linebreak~**

Percy Jackson is in my house.

I guess my mother wanted to see him or something so Malcolm kind of kidnapped him and brought him here. Half of me was happy because this meant she probably found out about the kiss and was going to punish, or at least reprimand him, and half of me was seething. How dare he step foot into my house after that? This is my house, my territory, and I'm going to make sure that is known!

Of course, I say this from out in the hall, eavesdropping.

"So, this is the boy who forced a kiss on my daughter, correct?" Percy was sitting on the couch, fidgeting. flexing his fingers, bouncing his leg and looking around.

"Yes, ma'am," said Malcolm all too quickly.

Mom walked around him, inspecting him. His somewhat stoic face contradicted his jittery demeanor.

"How do you think a little girl would feel, being surprised and kissed like that? Did you take any of her feelings in account when you did that?" she inquired smoothly, Percy's face was drained of blood.

I, for one, was smiling.

"Well, I have only one thing to say to you." she sat gracefully on the couch, folding her hands. "Keep up the good work, this is so exciting."

I almost fell over.

"What do you mean that's all, don't you have anything else to say?" Malcolm blurted out.

"No, that's all I just wanted to see what the boy looked like." she glanced out the door. I could have sworn she was looking straight through the wall and right at me.

"But he kissed Annabeth," Malcolm almost whined

"Oh yeah!" said Mom. She leaned in closer to him before saying: "You have nice eyes and the rest of you has grown on me as well. Feel free to pursue my daughter. That'll be all."

"Thank you, ma'am." The polite use of his words threw off guard.

I heard his footsteps grow louder and louder until his figure stopped at the door frame. I curled into a ball, trying to make myself as small as possible, unnoticeable. The air was silent for a while, and I took it as the chance to lift my head, only to see him still in the doorway, towering over me. I looked at him and he looked at me, and for a while, no one spoke.

Then he crouched down next to me, so we were eye-to-eye, I felt his arms around me, and for a second, it was as if nothing mattered, and we were in our own little universe.

"It's okay, you're fine. We're fine." he looked at me, brushing my hair back around my ears. I shuddered.

I shut my eyes tight, tucking my head back between my knees.

"I'm sorry." I looked at him again, but it was too late. His lips landed on my nose, my cheeks, my temples, until he settled his lips on my head, holding me closer. We sat like that for what felt like hours, but what also felt like not enough time. He ruffled my hair a little, standing up, and walking back through my house, leaving me thoroughly confused and a little bit dizzy.

 **~Linebreak~**

The next day I woke up still half in the clouds from my little encounter with Percy after school. When I got to school Percy wasn't there. But, there was one person who _was_ there when I came home. It was just for a fleeting moment, in fact, I only saw her as her taxi pulled out of the gates, but I saw her all the same.

It was Lacy.

Questions on top of questions swirled around in my head. I ran into the house, bursting through the front doors. Malcolm was in the living room, staring at the door, but the loud crash I made seemed to snap him out of his daze pretty quickly.

"She was here? Lacy came to see you? What happened to what you said? You let her into this house? How could you do that to me? You know what? I don't care if we're dating, not dating, but you're my manager! I don't want you seeing her again. _Ever._ You got that!?"

I wasn't half done with my angry rant before Mom decided to chime in.

She settled her hand on my shoulder and squeezed, hard. "Settle down. Now."

I whipped around. "Mom! How could you let her into this house?"

"Be quiet," she said sternly. "Do you really think this 'love' between you and Malcolm is real?"

"I believe it was real, and I believe that it can be real again."

"I was hoping you would figure it out on your own, but that's obviously not happening. So I'm going to put it bluntly. Malcolm is not your boyfriend and you two are not in love. You can say that you love him all you want but I can assure you that he does not feel that way toward you. Sometimes you act grown up but you _are_ a child. There is no way Malcolm could ever have any romantic feelings for you."

It wasn't much the words that hurt, it was the way she said them. As if she were stating any other obvious fact. It was the fact that I'd heard this a million times from Percy, from the media, from _everyone,_ and now I hear it from my own mother.

It was kind of like reality hit me, all over again. It was both relieving and infuriating at the same time. It felt like there was already an empty hole where my heart should be, so what would one more wound mean? I didn't even care, what's one more person lost when you have nobody?

Still, Malcolm was special. I could barely remember a time when he wasn't around. I remember when our relationship blossomed, and to me it was like a kind of fairy tale. Until everything started to fall apart, and I was perpetually picking up the pieces of us trying to put them back together before it all shattered.

Then, somewhere down the line, I'd put something in the wrong place, and we weren't the same ever since. We started building everything wrong, and it wasn't long until we were fragile, like a house of cards, one breath from caving in. Our relationship- or whatever it was- was like a ticking time bomb, and I was always crushed with the pressure of regulating it, making sure it didn't blow up in my face.

But now things are coming to an end, _really_ ending, and I almost feel relieved. At the same time, it was infuriating on how they could think it was okay to _toy_ with me like this. I internally chastised myself, knowing that this could have ended simply last time when Lacy first came into the picture, when it all came crashing down.

"It's true isn't it?" I looked at Malcolm, who's slumped demeanor was all I needed to tell me that this really was all a game.

I ran- literally _ran_ -out of the house and down the street, heading nowhere in particular. With every turn I got more and more lost, with every turn the lump in my throat grew, and with every turn I got an inch closer to crying. I ran wildly, pumping my arms, my legs, until they burned. Until my breath was laboured, until I felt like I couldn't run anymore. I had to have ran over five blocks when I felt someone grab my wrist. I whipped my head around, to find Percy, concern etched all over his face.

"Percy. . ." The wind blew and the night air chilled my face. It was especially cold and it was only then I realized I was crying. My hands raked at the probably smudged mascara on my face.

"Annabeth, what going on? Wait, are you _crying?_ " His grip on my wrist tightened.

"I-" I hiccuped. "I've never been more embarrassed in my life. I feel like I can't go home." It was a stupid idea to have in my head, I knew.

"What are you talking about, that's crazy." Percy's hand still hadn't left my wrist, and I was starting to feel the electricity emanating from his skin, coursing through my veins. "If you can't go home, where else are you gonna go?"

I scoffed, rolled my wet eyes. Of course he'd taken me seriously.

"I don't know. Some other city, far away from here, where I'm not Annabeth Chase, where I won't matter."

"I don't think you'll ever 'not matter'. At least not to me." He smiled and pulled me into a hug, I took a deep breath. He smelled of sea spray and chocolate and it was so refreshing to just be there with him, in the empty street, like we ruled our own small piece of the universe. It was nice to feel like part of something that didn't feel like it'll come crashing down any minute. When he pulled away, a blast of cold air hit me, and I longed for the comfort of his arms.

He tugged on my wrist. "Come on, let's go talk."

 **~Linebreak~**

We ended up in the small park between our houses. The same park where Grover and I had pantsed him so long ago.

"It was all just a game, he doesn't love me, he just sees me as a child." I swiped at my puffy eyes.

"I hate to say it, but I told you so. I bet you feel really mad now." he sighed.

"Surprisingly, not very mad. I feel like I may have known it all along. Maybe I was in denial or something. I just feel mortified."

We were sitting next to each other in the small gazebo. I was pushed up against him, even though there was more than enough space on the bench. The same gazebo where I had pretended to be his mother what felt like so long ago. Except this time, I realized, I'm the one hurting.

"Oh, don't even be worried, just about everybody likes you. So it's a little bit embarrassing, you'll get over it. It's nothing to get uptight over." I looked at him a long enough to see that his ears and nose were red, and his leg was bouncing again with the endless energy I'd never seemed to notice before.

"Do _you_ like me?" At first I'd meant it as a joke- just to tease him -but as time passed between us in silence, I found myself hanging onto his every breath, his every movement, waiting for an answer.

"Um. . . yes?" He answered with a question and I snickered a little.

"That wasn't funny," he complained.

"It kind of was," I admitted. "Anyways, how could you know how it feels to be embarrassed?"

"Everyone does." He looked at me, as if he were wondering whether he should tell me a secret or not. "Listen. This is just between you and me, but when I think about the way I was before, wreaking havoc and stuff, I get a little embarrassed too."

"You do?"

"Yeah, but even so, you didn't just write me off. You went out of your way because you wanted to help me."

"Yeah, of course, shouldn't that be obvious?"

"Yeah, because that's what people do, right? They work _through_ their problems. So just work through it. I mean it's not like Mr. Sunglasses guy hates you or anything, does he?"

"I guess not." I wondered how it must have felt to have someone in your family _really_ hate you. My gaze wandered back to Percy, who was looking around absently. "Hey, Percy?"

His head turned towards me, catching my gaze and then looking away. "Yeah?"

"How are things at home?"

"I thought you were the one in distress here." he murmured.

"Percy."

He sighed. "Honestly, things are fine. Misty and Paul are being really nice to me all of a sudden." He paused, running his hand through his hair. "It's can be kind of creepy at times, but it feels good to. . . you know, have someone there."

"That's. . . good."

He looked at me again. "It's all because of you, you know. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if you hadn't saved me like that."

"Saved you?"

"Yeah, sort of like Batman. I don't know where I would have been if it wasn't for you. Sometimes I think that maybe I'd be gone, a runaway or something. Maybe I'd even be dead." He frowned.

"Dead." The word was heavy with meaning.

"Dead. I don't know, maybe committed suicide or been murdered in the streets somewhere."

"You wouldn't have ran away," I said. Was it really that bad?.

"I was actually thinking about it. I'd had gotten along by myself well enough, what was never returning going to do?"

"Percy-"

"But it's all changed. Annabeth, you can't even begin to imagine how much better things have gotten. I have a curfew, I have people at home who think of me, and worry when I'm not home. When I'm home it doesn't feel bleak. I eat dinner with people at night," he sighed. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that for you, things might have gotten bad, but they can get better or worse, it's just depends on what you make of it."

"Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"No, thank _you_." he smiled and- without warning- kissed me again, for the second time (I don't count the one in the hallway). I shuddered, my skin feeling as if it were on fire, electricity in my veins. I closed my eyes, feeling my heart speed up, blood rushing in my ears.

He pulled away slowly, his arms on either side of me. He smelled like boy and it made me want to melt right there, with him to hold me together.

"I have to get you home." he decided, standing up.

"One more question."

"Yes?"

"Why do you. . ." I looked up a him.

"Why do I what?"

"Kiss me."

He stopped, looking at me and then away as if he didn't even notice that he just made my world spin. He smiled a little, but quickly schooled his expression when he caught my gaze. But the glint in his eyes still remained.

"I guess it's because I don't hate you."

I smiled, half of it was because of his merry expression that I so seldom get to see, and half of it was because it really did feel good, you know, to have someone there.

 **Ok, so I really did work hard on this chapter. I think it's my best one yet. Again, I couldn't get it up in time because my fanfiction was being glitchy. I had to actually email fanfiction and get them to look at it. They said it was a "hiccup in the code" which was pretty weird. Anyways, I really hope you liked it, if you did, drop me a review, thank you!**

 **~Follow your Dreams~**

 **-TFN**


	9. Picking up the Pieces

**Before I start I just want to say something about the reviews I got really recently. The first thing is** _ **thank you.**_ **From the bottom of my heart I just wanted to say thank you. When I first started this story it was, what, a couple of months ago? I thought that this would be the masterpiece, I thought that this was the best thing that would ever be written. And then when I was writing, updating, posting, I realized that it was much more than that. It's** _ **my**_ **masterpiece. And I don't care what anyone thinks of it as long as I'm proud of it.**

 **So all I wanted to say was that I really, really, love writing this. And sometimes things get in the way of it, like school, or home problems and stuff but I know that every time I could back to my notepad, I'm really where I should be. And yes, I know that the first chapters sucked so bad and I had grammar, spelling, and general plot and character mistakes, but I'm not doing this because I'm a pro. I doing this so that in a couple of years, I can look back on how far I've come.**

 **Chapter 9: Picking up the Pieces**

 **Percy's PoV**

I'm walking Annabeth home (which didn't happen without protest), and it was only then I realized how wrong this was. How wrong it all was. A girl like Annabeth shouldn't be with a guy like me, even if we weren't technically _together_.

Sometimes I wonder what we'd be like if we weren't in this situation. What if our roles were switched, Annabeth was the neglected one and I was the famous actor. I wonder if I could ever be Annabeth's knight in shining armor. Probably not. And that was the worst part of it.

I know that I probably can never manage to pay Annabeth back for everything that she's done for me. Which probably the only reason she lets me stick around. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not a good person. And I'm okay with that, I guess.

I looked at Annabeth next to me. Sometimes I just think, which surprises me because I rarely ever used to think about the things I did. And sometimes I think about Annabeth, and sometimes I think about me.

Me.

I guess you could say I'm a little bit of a player, in Annabeth's eyes, for kissing someone in kindergarten for money. But what can I say? I dollar could buy me an ice cream, and I'd never seen it as that much of a big deal. It's basically just touching someone's mouth with your mouth. But based off of Annabeth's reaction, I guess it's a little more than that. Or a lot more than that.

I glanced at Annabeth to find her gray orbs trained on me. My heart skipped.

"Thanks," she said.

"For what?"

"Bringing me home." She gestured to her right and it was only then I realized that we were standing right outside the gate to her house. The light from the house cast a golden glow around her and made her look almost otherworldly.

"Oh- well- you're welcome." I threw in an extremely dry laugh because I'm awkward like that.

"You. . . wanna come inside?" She took a small step towards the gate. To be honest, I kind of did, her house was huge and they have good cake there. But her mother is kind of creepy, to be honest.

"No thanks," I said. "My dad is probably worried . . . about. . . me." The words were still almost unbelievable. My dad was probably getting _worried_ about _me._

"Yeah," she said after a while and I was really starting to believe that this was the most awkward conversation I had ever had.

"And your mom scares me just a little bit," I added on, in hopes of lightening up the mood. And by the looks of it, it worked. Annabeth chuckled a little.

"She was probably doing it on purpose."

And that, admittedly, was probably the best part of the night, seeing Annabeth's smile.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Annabeth's PoV~**

After a couple minutes of excruciatingly awkward conversation, I went back inside my house to find my mother standing at the door.

"Feeling better?" was all she asked and I was so grateful for her simplicity in that moment.

"Yeah."

"Malcolm is waiting for you in his room." It was the last thing she said before turning around and going back down the hallway.

I sighed, really just wanting to sleep, but I went to his room anyways. He was sitting on the bed, his hair tousled and his tie loose.

"Hey, Malcolm." I shuffled into his room.

Instead of speaking, he gestured to the seat next to him on the bed. I sat and he looked at me; he looked at me like he used to when I was seven years old, and I was just starting fall in love with my manager, the days where everything was brighter, and it felt like a walk in the sunshine whenever I saw him. Then I remembered that those days are over. They ended when he shattered my heart and stomped on it. I felt my face heat up and my blood start to boil.

"If you wanted to talk me about how childish I was to ever believe that our relationship was real, don't. I _really_ don't want to hear it." I resisted the urge to cover my ears.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

I stared at my feet, tucking my hair behind my ears.

"It's . . ." I sighed. "It's okay."

"Huh?" He looked at me.

"I think. . . I think I might have any idea about how you felt." I tapped my feet on the ground aimlessly. "You didn't want to break my heart, but you broke it, even more, this time." I chuckled dryly.

"Yeah. . ."

"Just. . ." My face felt hot and I felt tears escape my eyes and roll down my cheek. I kept staring at my feet.

Malcolm leaned forward. "Annabeth, are you crying?"

I laughed a little. "Yeah, yeah I guess I am." I felt a little pathetic to be throwing a fit while Malcolm is there with a straight face. This isn't me. I'm strong-willed, strong-minded Annabeth. I don't cry. I don't whine, I don't do any of the things I've been doing this whole week where my life turned upside down. Then again, who could really blame me? This is someone I've been looking at for so long, and the straight up rejection? I don't want to believe it.

"I didn't know it was that bad, I'm sorry.I know from the start it was never going to happen, but you were a kid, you know? It was a childhood crush. I didn't want to ruin that for you. Annabeth, you're not a normal kid. I wanted you to have the life that all little kids have. I didn't think it would really be a lasting thing." Malcolm tried to console me, but I didn't really feel very consoled. Just more insulted, really.

"I know, I know." I wiped away my tears hastily. "It's just that, you were my person. You were the one person I felt like I could lean on. It's hard."

"So. . . what are we going to do now?" He twiddled his thumbs nervously.

"I'm not going to fire you if that's what you're thinking. I think it's best if you just. . . stay away from me for a while. Just give me my schedule for the month, and I'll handle getting to and from work. I think I just need to think for a while because right now, I feel really crappy and I just want space." I got up, already heading towards the door.

"Goodnight," he managed to slip in the words just before I closed the door. I stood there for a second, wondering what I should say. Instead, I just closed the door and headed towards my bedroom.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Percy's PoV~**

 **~Just a Short One 3~**

Tonight wasn't my best night. It's really bad. I can't even talk to Annabeth right anymore. It's just weird, and I know it's kind of jerky to be thinking about her this way right after she just got out of that relationship with her manager and I think Grover still likes her, and her whole life is pretty much imploding on itself.

It's gotten to the point where I can't just not think about her. I was eating dinner tonight, and all I thought of was 'What is Annabeth was here, eating dinner with us?' I was watching TV and all I was thinking was 'What if I saw Annabeth on TV?'.

I'm way out of my league right now, how am I ever supposed to get with the pretty actress? She's better off meeting another handsome young actor and being one of those celebrity power couples.

I feel like it would be better if I just pull away for now. I think it's better to just be there for her, instead of just always chasing after her. I want her to lean on me more, so I can be there for her.

All I know is that I'm in way over my head.

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Annabeth's PoV~**

I really need to pull my life together.

You'd think I'd have it together already. I have a steady job, a loving family, friends, education. You could say I have it all. But I don't feel that way, not at all. The one completely stable relationship I thought I had is completely gone, I still don't know what the heck is going on with Percy, and think that's the only good thing in my life right now because I don't know what my feelings are towards him, and before I even think about my feelings, I don't even know what his feelings are.

It's so confusing, life is. One second, you got it all together, the next it's falling apart.

I need to take a second to realize where my priorities are. On one hand, I've got work, which is for sure a priority. On the other hand, I've got my school life which I've really been slacking on. My grades are dropping because I keep missing school.

And then there's Percy.

I really don't know about him. On one hand, he has that kind of carefree personality that I really hate. On the other hand, he has these eyes that just get to me. Every. Single. Time. I feel like I should be there for him more. I'm not the only one with a weird life, and I've been leaning on him too much. Maybe once the tension between him and I calms down a bit, I'll be able to talk to him more about us.

And Malcolm too. We already had our talk, but I feel like I should be able to talk to him more again. I mean, he is my manager. I think I'll be able to handle transporting myself to and from places, but maybe I'll do something for him to make it up to him.

 **~Linebreak~**

The next morning was alright, I woke up earlier than usual, and it only took me a little bit of makeup to cover up the red rings around my eyes from the night before. I wore a way-too-big-for-me sweatshirt and leggings to school, hoping that maybe everything today would go right, and for once I can have a normal day. I carpooled with Piper to school, making sure act as happy as I could so that I wouldn't be questioned at all. It was tiring, but I think I made it through okay.

The problem was, that I just realized that I would actually have to keep up that facade for the whole day, which will be really exhausting. Right now, I just want to go home and eat a whole pint of ice cream. It's not even like I'm sad, it's just that drama is exhausting, and I really just want to calm down. I don't think I've ever had more of a thank-god-it's-Friday feeling than today.

 **~Linebreak~**

Lunch was probably the best part of my day. The cafeteria was serving their absolutely disgusting pizza again, so I decided to skip. I went to the library instead, hoping to study for an upcoming test.

There weren't very many kids in the library. It was really quiet, and it soothed my headache. I had already pulled out a couple of textbooks and some schoolwork when I saw him walk in. He was clad in dark jeans and a blue shirt that really made his eyes shine more if that's even possible.

He looked around the library for a quick second, before his eyes landed on me. I snapped my gaze away from him. How weird would it be if he walked in and I was staring at him? I pretended to already be working, but hoping he wouldn't come over because my face was probably intimidating a tomato at this point. Who was I kidding? I felt his green eyes lock on me, and I knew I was done for. He strode over, taking a seat in the seat directly opposite from me.

"Hey."

"Hi," I mumbled, careful not to look directly into his eyes as I lifted my head to look at him. Last night was awkward, and I didn't want him bringing it up again. Still, I brought my eye to him warily, letting my eyelids droop slightly. I was tired, I couldn't deny that. But I did wake up when Percy suddenly moved his face so that it was close my mine. My face heated up. Was he. . .?

"Percy-" I started.

"Have you been crying?" he cut me off. My lips parted, staring at him in astonishment. How did he know? I had looked at myself in the mirror today, I looked fine. No one else noticed. I didn't do anything that could have messed it up by now. . .

"What?" Was all I could say before he grabbed me by the elbows, pulling me to the window. He stared into my face for quite a while, narrowing his eyes as he pushed himself closer to me.

"Definitely crying," he concluded before sliding his hands down to my wrists. "What happened? I'll listen."

I wondered for a second why Percy was acting so. . . caring lately. And since when did he get this clever? He had looked at me for barely a second and he already knew. I did my best to ignore the burning feeling that erupted from my skin where his hands were.

"Nothing," I mumbled. It was the truth, I wasn't bothered by it anymore. Scratch that. I was _really_ bothered by it. I shouldn't be bothered by it, so I wasn't. Percy scoffed.

"'Nothing', yeah right." he glanced down at his hands on me, and quickly retracted them, putting them behind his back. He could have been blushing, but it could also be the red glow coming through the library curtains.

"Seriously, it's cool. I just ran into Malcolm last night, it was fine." I sighed, reaching a hand up to rub my eyes, but stopped midway, not wanted to mess up my makeup. If Percy would see it so easily, what about everyone else in the classroom? Everyone knows that I don't cry. I don't look sad, I don't whine. I don't do any of those things weak people do to get attention.

"By the way," I realized I was standing a little too close and took a step back. "How did you see my eyes? I thought I covered them up."

"Your eyes puffy?" He leaned closer, and I was beginning to start feeling that burning in my wrists earlier, except the fire engulfed my entire body this time. "They are. So you have been crying!"

"But, if you just noticed that, how'd you know?"

He smiled. "It's the look of your face, it gives it away every time." I looked at him for a long while. How come I didn't know anything about him, but he knew just the way to figure me out every time? "Anyways, you're sad and I want to know why."

"Yeah, things went down at home."

"What?"

"I had a talk with Malcolm." Percy's eyes widened.

"What did he do to you?"

"Nothing, we just talked."

"Then what's wrong?" He looked frustrated.

"Reality is wrong, Percy. have you ever just felt like sometimes, you're not caught up with yourself? Sometimes your mind is racing at a hundred miles per hour, and it leaves your heart behind. Sometimes you think you're fine, but you're not. And sometimes you hit a bump in the road, and you're brain skips right over it, but your heart is still stuck. And you're frustrated because you want to move, and you know you should move on, and you have to move on. And you can't. You just can't. I can't."

He eyed me with some emotion I couldn't pick out. His eyes were thinking, and eventually, leaned against the wall. "Yeah, I think I get what you're saying. It's like sometimes, your heart needs more time to accept what your brain already knows. And it sucks, it really sucks, because you're just sitting there, confused and tired, waiting for yourself to feel full again."

I closed my eyes, relishing the feeling of understanding. I'm stuck. My heart is stuck on Malcolm. And I don't know when it'll ever manage to find itself a way out.

"It sucks, but it's life." I turned to Percy, who was smiling at the ceiling. "At the end of the day, it is what it is. At some point, you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and what you wanted to happen, and just live in what's happening. Sometimes you just have to accept what's happened, and stop wasting your time on things that don't matter anymore." He closed his eyes.

Except it did matter. No matter how utterly messy it was, Malcolm was the first one to break my heart. I will always remember that. For the rest of my life, he will always be the one that hurt me the most. I don't want to forget that. I don't want to let that go. No matter what, Malcolm will always be my first love. And now my first love is gone. Nothing will ever respark, nothing will change the fact that he was the first one.

But I'm willing to pick up the pieces.

Just then, my heart caught up.

And that's when I knew it would be okay.

I looked at Percy, who was still staring at the ceiling, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Who taught you all these life lessons?" I teased, smiling, and when he looked at me the smile was wiped clean off my face. His eyes looked so crystal clear it was like I could see right through them.

"Someone who really made sure my world will never be the same."

 **~Linebreak~**

 **~Percy's PoV~**

 _La Douleur Exquise._ Annabeth taught me that word. It means "exquisite pain". It's a connotation for the feeling of wanting someone you know you can't have.

Sometimes I wonder if my heart will ever catch up to my brain. Annabeth Chase is bad news. She's the girl I can never get, and I know that. But every time I look at her, it's just like I forget it all. Not just my common judgment. _All of it._ Everything from my empty childhood, to the reckless misbehavior, to the way she made me feel like something was there even when it wasn't. All of it.

It's come to the point where I can't really imagine a life without her.

Every day for weeks, I met Annabeth in that same library. We leaned against the same window, and talked about what was happening in our lives, and sometimes we'd share funny things that happened recently, and we'd share laughs. And every single time she'd laugh, I would always sober myself up just so that I could look at her. Her eyes, and the way they lit up, her lips and the way they curled into that smile I adored, her nose and the way it crinkled when she laughed. Then she'd look at me and we'd sit there looking at each other until we both broke out into laughter again.

Every single time.

It was like a therapy session. No, maybe it was more like that moment you feel when you watch the sun set on a terrible day and the sunrise for a new hope. The rays slowly spreading color into your world. Letting you know it's never too late to change your ways.

Annabeth was my sunrise. Every time she smiled at me, it was like I knew it was worth it. It was all worth it. Every single second of agony I spent wishing for her, it was all worth it. I began to realize I was changing. I hate change. Change is when everything shifts and you find yourself feeling more confused than when you started. Change is that moment where you get your house refurbished, and suddenly, it doesn't feel exactly like home anymore.

Except I feel like I was starting to like it.

 **~Linebreak~**

Dinner.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

On one hand, a home-cooked meal tasted good, after eating crappy takeout every day for years. On the other, I didn't like how my dad came home from work early to dine with me, or how every single time, I take a bite of something my sister has to go ahead and ask me if I like the food. Or how when I excuse myself to go to the bathroom, my family acts like suddenly, I hate them.

But this, this was the worst. It started when I got home from school.

I had nothing to do, no one to talk to. My sister was watching some kind of drama TV show, and I know that her show ended at seven, so I was pretty much home alone that this point. I pondered why I never got Annabeth's number. I could've texted her, met her in the park, something. Instead, I stared up at the ceiling of my room. My mind drifted to Annabeth, and I knew it wasn't coming back anytime soon. Lately, she's been happier at school. And it's not the fake happy she was for so long after things got tense with Malcolm. It was a genuine happy. Where she laughed at the corny jokes I tell her, just so that I can see her carefree face again.

. . .

 _I don't know why I didn't realize something was wrong the minute my father came home. He put down his briefcase by the door. He usually tucks it away neatly into his office. He didn't get changed when he sat down to dinner. Misty had made some sort of pasta. She quickly dished it out, setting mine in front of me like it was a priceless diamond. We had just started eating when my father began to ask questions._

" _So son, how was school today?" It still bothered me how he never called me Percy or any variation of that. I was just 'son'._

" _It was fine."_

 _The rest of dinner was held in silence, until Paul started coughing hysterically. Misty immediately started panicking, running to his side, patting him on the back the way you pat babies when you want them to burp. He fell forward, his face slamming onto the kitchen table, blood pooling around his head. I stood still, waiting for it all to be over. Did that makes me a bad person? Not even helping my father when something was clearly going terribly wrong? All I know is that when I reached for my phone, I didn't think about calling 911, or the paramedics. All I thought about is the incredible regret that I didn't get Annabeth's number._

 _It's funny, how we all call ourselves humans. Humans are supposed to be beings of caring. We always advertise intelligence and love. We always talk about how much we hate the hate in this world. But the second you do something terrible, the second you make a mistake, suddenly that's what makes you human. Mistakes make you human. I never seemed to grasp that. When my mother made the mistake of giving herself up for me, suddenly everyone tells me it was the most caring thing they've ever seen. I don't get it. It was a mistake. She drew the rift in the family. Not me. And yet the blame landed on me because I was the product of the problem? I never got that._

 _Wondered if it was a mistake to sit in my kitchen while my own step-father got dragged off by the paramedics. At some point, someone called 911. Or was it me? Definitely not me, I don't recall ever moving from my spot. Maybe it was the neighbors, though I'm not sure how they would ever know. I'm also still not sure how I ended up in the hospital, waiting for the doctors to tell us what happened to him._

 _Was this what people call shock? When you can't move and suddenly you feel like you're floating in a sea of dread. Shock is what I felt when my father started dying in front of me._

. . .

When the doctors asked if we had anyone we wanted to contact, Misty had no one. I looked at her. I never wondered how she was doing in school. I mean, I knew she got good grades because she used to rub them in my face all the time. But I never see her going out with her friends like other teenage girls. No bringing guys home, no friends, it's weird.

Nevertheless, I raised my hand. There was definitely someone I wanted to contact.

 **~Linebreak~**

When Annabeth arrived, her hair whisked all around parking next to the hospital in a bike. Who rides a bike to the hospital in the middle of the night?

Only her.

Her hair was frizzy and knotted as if she didn't even think to brush it before she left the house. Her cheeks were flushed a rosy color, as the air she puffed out turned into steam and danced away in the cold night air. If I didn't suspect that I was going slightly insane, I would've told her that he looked good. Looking back on it, I'm so happy I didn't comment because that would be kind of awkward.

"What-" she breathed heavily. "What happened? I got a call, no caller ID."

"My dad." Suddenly, I felt like crying. I shifted from foot to foot. "I don't know what's going to happen to him. To us." My voice cracked, and I hated every second of it.

"Oh, Percy," She parked her bike, right there, in the middle of the road. She came closer, and for a second I thought she was going in for a hug, and if it wasn't so cold out I would've blushed. Instead, she held out her hand, and I interlocked mine with hers. Slowly, she led me back into the white, sterile building.

I couldn't really tell you if it was Annabeth or the fact that it was so late a night. Maybe in the dark, quiet waiting room, the red sign above the door my step-father was on the other side of. Telling us, that we couldn't come in.

 **~Linebreak~**

It was either forever or no time at all before I could see Paul again, couldn't really tell you. Misty paced the whole time, while Annabeth sat on the couches. I found it strange how they make the chairs so comfortable. They try to make you feel at home. It was that very thing that made me feel worse than ever.

The door opened, and a man clad in a white laboratory coat came out. We all watched him, waiting for answers.

"Your dad is fine." he read from a clipboard in his hands. "The cause of the breakdown was stress. He was overworking himself." He pulled a pen from his pocket and clicked, handing the clipboard to Misty. "Next oldest in the family, you have to sign this confirming your father got the proper help he needs."

"When are we going to see him?" Annabeth cut in. The doctor narrowed his eyes at her. "It's family only."

"Yeah, I'm his daughter," she lied smoothly, putting her arm around me. "This is my twin."

"You don't look much like it," the doctor commented, before opening the hospital door. Annabeth walked in, exuding confidence.

The scene wasn't like all the medical TV shows I've seen. When a family member was in the hospital, they were supposed to have so many tubes in them that you couldn't see their face. It was supposed to be devastating. Instead, Paul was just sitting on the bed casually like he should have been there the whole time. It made me mad to see that after causing us all this panic, he was just sitting there like nothing ever happened.

"Hi Percy, Misty, Annabeth."

"Hey, Mr. Blofis. Glad to see you're doing fine." She smiled, but I could see the strain behind it.

"I guess I should lay off the extra hours, shouldn't I?" He made an attempt at humor, probably trying to lighten up the room in some way. The problem was, I didn't feel like laughing.

"Are you going to tell us why you made us all worried for nothing?" My fist clenched at my side.

"Percy-" Annabeth started.

"No. You made us wait here all this time," I looked out the at the sun bursting through the horizon. "For something petty like this?"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it." He stared down at the floor. "I'm a single father, I have to work to provide for you guys." Suddenly, I felt really bad for what I said. He was just trying to give us a good life.

"It's fine." I turned around and walked out of the room, out of the whole building. It was chilly out, and I needed to catch some air. The door opened behind me and light spilled in.

"Hey, Percy." I knew from her voice that it was Annabeth. "It's great that your dad is doing better."

"Yeah," I mumbled.

"So how are you feeling?" She stood next to me and we both watched the sunrise.

"Stupid."

"Well, we all feel the way sometimes." She sighed, before turning to look at me. "Here." She handed me a small pager. I thought I had seen this before, but they weren't those cute ones she and Malcolm carried. It was a small black sleek one.

"If you carry this around with you all the time, I'll know whenever you need me." She rubbed her hands to together in the cold night air. "I won't have to wait until you use the public hospital phone to call me."

"What about your phone? I could just get your number."

"Believe it or not, I'm not on my phone much." She smiled.

And we stood there, side by side in the frigid New York Winter, watching the sunrise. We were just two friends, watching the sunset on problems, and the sun rise on a new day. And I couldn't help but think, with her by my side, that it might just be alright.

 **Hi! Long to no update.**

 **I'm really sorry for the lack of updates, I've actually had a lot of things going on with myself. I was actually in and out of the hospital a lot, getting treated for a hernia. It's probably the most painful you could ever experience. So I've gotten surgery for that, I'm good. If you don't know what a hernia is, look it up. I'm pretty sure there's a Buzzfeed video on it.**

 **It was actually really hard to write this. I guess it was hard to think about the way they would react I kind of wanted this to be a peaceful chapter since things are going to get a little crazy soon. I'll try to update more, but I'm going on vacation from the 3rd of July to basically the 10th, so I move quickly, I want to update a chapter before I leave.**

 **Follow your dreams~**

 **-TFN**


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